Parliament (Elections and Meeting) Act 1943

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1943 c. 48


Parliament (Elections and Meeting) Act, 1943

(6 & 7 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 48.

An Act to make temporary provision as respects parliamentary elections and the registration of parliamentary electors and, in connection therewith, as respects the dissolution of parliament as from a future date and other matters; to consolidate and amend the law as to the officers to whom writs for parliamentary elections are to be directed, and the persons to whom and the manner in which they are to be conveyed; and to shorten the time required for summoning parliament when prorogued.

[11th November 1943]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I Parliamentary Electors (War-Time Registration ).

Part I.

Parliamentary Electors (War-Time Registration ).

Preliminary.

Preliminary.

S-1 Special register for war-time parliamentary elections.

1 Special register for war-time parliamentary elections.

(1) The parliamentary register of electors to be in force for the purposes of a war election in any constituency shall be a register specially prepared for that election under this Part of this Act.

(2) For the purposes of this Part of this Act, the expression ‘war election’ means a parliamentary election initiated on or after the appointed day and before the expiration of the National Registration Act, 1939 , not being a university election.

(3) The said register shall consist of three parts, to be known respectively as the civilian residence register, the business premises register and the service register, but no person shall be entitled to be registered in more than one part of the register for the same constituency.

(4) Subject to the provisions hereafter contained in this Part of this Act as respects the business premises register, the date by reference to which a person's qualification for registration in any part of the said register for any election is to be ascertained shall be the last day of the month next before that in which the election is initiated, and that day is hereafter in this Part of this Act referred to as ‘the qualifying date’.

(5) Subject to any order made by the Secretary of State under this Part of this Act, the said register shall be published and come into force for an election on the thirty-sixth day after the initiation of the election:

Provided that if the said thirty-sixth day falls on a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday, there shall be substituted the next following day which is not a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday.

S-2 Initiation of election and extension of time for holding thereof.

2 Initiation of election and extension of time for holding thereof.

(1) For the purposes of this Part of this Act, the date on which an election shall be taken to be initiated shall be—

(a ) in the case of a general election, the date of His Majesty's proclamation summoning the new parliament; and

(b ) in the case of a by-election, the date on which the writ is received;

and references to the initiation of an election shall be construed accordingly.

(2) In their application to a war election the following enactments, namely—

(a ) rule 2a of the First Schedule to the Ballot Act, 1872 , as amended by Part I of the Second Schedule to the principal Act (which provides that at a general election the day fixed for the election shall be the eighth day after the date of His Majesty's proclamation summoning the new parliament);

(b ) subsection (3) of section twenty-one of the principal Act (which provides that the time appointed for the meeting of parliament may be any time not less than twenty clear days after the said proclamation);

(c ) rule 2 of the First Schedule to the Ballot Act, 1872 (which, as amended by Part II of this Act, provides that, in the case of a by-election for a county, the day fixed for the election shall not be later than the ninth day after the day on which the writ is received);

(d ) section three of the Representation of the People (No. 2) Act, 1920 (which, as amended by Part II of this Act, provides that, in the case of a by-election for a borough, the day fixed for nomination shall not be later than the seventh day after the day on which the writ is received);

shall have effect as if there were substituted, for the reference to the date of His Majesty's proclamation or the day on which the writ is received, as the case may be, a reference to the day on which the register under this Part of this Act comes into force for that election.

S-3 Dissolution of parliament on future date.

3 Dissolution of parliament on future date.

3. If, at any time when no register under this Part of this Act for the election of members to serve in a new parliament is in force, His Majesty is pleased, by a proclamation dissolving a parliament and summoning a new parliament, to dissolve the parliament on a future date fixed by the proclamation,—

a ) the date so fixed shall not be later than the day on which the register under this Part of this Act for the election of members to serve in the new parliament comes into force; and
b ) any writ for the election of a member to serve in the existing parliament issued but not returned before the date of the proclamation shall be superseded as if the parliament had been dissolved on the date of the proclamation
S-4 Remote constituencies.

4 Remote constituencies.

(1) If the Secretary of State is satisfied as respects any constituency that, owing to delay or interruption, or the likelihood of delay or interruption, in communications between the registration officer and other persons, the time allowed by subsection (5) of section one of this Act for the publication of the register is insufficient, he may by order direct that that subsection shall have effect as respects that constituency with the substitution for the thirty-sixth day of such later day, not being later than the forty-second day, as may be specified in the order.

(2) Any such order—

(a ) may be made either generally or as respects a particular election, and may be made in the course of a particular election; and

(b ) may direct that any provision of electoral registration regulations relating to the time at or within which anything must be done in connection with the preparation of the register for an election shall apply to the constituency subject to such modifications as may be specified in the order, and may postpone or extend any such time notwithstanding that it has elapsed or expired; and

(c ) may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order of the Secretary of State.

(3) Where such an order is in force as respects an election in any constituency—

(a ) subsection (2) of section two of this Act and the last foregoing section shall have effect as if the register for the election had come into force on the day on which it would have come into force but for the provisions of the order;

(b ) for the purpose of the provisions of section one of the Ballot Act, 1872, requiring the nomination of a candidate to be subscribed by registered electors, a person who has been included in any electors list for the election, and to whose inclusion therein no objection has been duly taken, shall be treated as if he were a registered elector.

Civilian voters in United Kingdom.

Civilian voters in United Kingdom.

S-5 Civilian residence register.

5 Civilian residence register.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, a person, being on the qualifying date a British subject of full age and not subject to any legal incapacity, shall be entitled to be registered in the civilian residence register for an election in any constituency, if on that date that person either—

(a ) is registered in the National Register as residing at a place in the constituency and has—

(i) throughout the period of two months ending with that date; or

(ii) if within that period he became registered in the National Register on ceasing to be a member of the forces or a seaman, throughout the period since his becoming so registered;

been registered in the National Register as residing at that place or some other place in the same constituency; or

(b ) having had at some earlier date (not being earlier than the appointed day) such qualifications as would have entitled him under the foregoing provisions of this section to be registered in the civilian residence register for the election if that earlier date had been the qualifying date, has at no time since that earlier date been either—

(i) registered in the National Register as residing at one place in some other constituency, or at two or more places consecutively in one other constituency, for a continuous period of two months; or

(ii) removed from the National Register on becoming exempt from registration therein by virtue of national registration regulations; or

(iii) registered in the National Register as having been resident outside the United Kingdom for a continuous period of two months.

(2) For the purposes of the foregoing subsection—

(a ) a person who, from the particulars entered with respect to him in the National Register, appears to be a British subject of full age and not subject to any legal incapacity shall be treated as such until the contrary is proved;

(b ) a person shall not be treated as registered in the National Register as residing at a place in any constituency if he is so registered as usually resident outside the United Kingdom.

(3) National registration regulations may—

(a ) prescribe the information with respect...

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