SOLDIERS TO VOTE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1940, Page 4

SOLDIERS TO VOTE

IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IRRESPECTIVE OF AGE. REGULATIONS GAZETTED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Voting in Parliamentary elections by members of the Forces overseas is provided for in regulations gazetted last night. These regulations were envisaged in the Act passed recently by Parliament, and they cover the procedure to be adopted for taking the votes of soldiers serving abroad.

Special returning officers will be appointed to supervise the recording of votes by New Zealand wherever they happen to be situated overseas, and these officers will make the necessary arrangements for polling places, the distribution of voting papers and the counting of votes. After the poll has been held the returning officers will forward the results to the Chief Electoral Officer in New Zealand by cable or by other expeditious means. Machinery matters, such as thd forwarding of the necessary ballot papers to New Zealanders serving overseas are also covered by the regulations.

An interesting provision is the definition contained in the regulations of those eligible to vote. They will comprise all members of the Forces irrespective of age. Members of the forces will vote for the candidates standing for election in their own New Zealand electorates, and they will be required to make a declaration that they were residing in those electorates immediately prior to their proceeding overseas.

Another provision empowers the Chief Electoral Officer to embody the results of soldiers’ voting in the general result of district polls when announced.