Clause 17

No person shall be admitted to vote at any polling station except the one allotted to him:Provided that where an elector for any electoral division is employed as a presiding officer, police officer, or in any other official capacity at a polling station, and it is inconvenient for him to vote at the polling station which has been allotted to him, the Superintendent may authorise the elector, by a certificate to vote at the polling station at which he is employed, and that polling station shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be the polling station allotted to such elector.

Such certificate shall be given under the hand of the Superintendent and shall state the name of the elector, his number, and description in the register of electors, and the fact that he is so employed as aforesaid.

Unless the Minister, by notification in the Gazette, appoints any other hour, the voting shall open at eight o’clock in the forenoon of the day specified in the notification published under the provisions of section 6 of this Ordinance and shall close at eight o’clock in the afternoon of that day.

The presiding officer shall keep order in his station, and shall regulate the number of voters to be admitted at a time, and shall exclude all other persons except the Superintendent and persons authorized in writing by the Superintendent, the police officers on duty and other persons officially employed at the polling station.

The Superintendent may, at his discretion, allow the political parties represented in the Legislative Assembly to appoint agents, hereinafter in this Ordinance referred to as “polling agents”, to the polling stations, provided that where, at any polling station more polling places than one have been established, the Superintendent may, at his discretion, allow such political parties to appoint a polling agent to each such polling place.

The president or the secretary of such political party shall appoint every polling agent and shall on polling day notify the presiding officer at a polling station in writing the name and address of the polling agent or agents appointed to act at such station.

No polling agent whose name has not been notified to the presiding officer as required under the provisions of subsection (6) of this section shall be admitted to a polling station.

If any person misconducts himself in the polling station, or fails to obey the lawful orders of the presiding officer, he may immediately, by order of the presiding officer, be removed from the polling station by any police officer in or near that station or by any other person authorized in writing by the presiding officer or by the Superintendent to remove him; and the person so removed shall not, unless with the permission of the presiding officer, again be allowed to enter the polling station. Any person so removed as aforesaid, if charged with the commission in such station of any offence, may be kept in custody until he can be brought before a magistrate.

The powers conferred by this section shall not be exercised so as to prevent any elector who is otherwise entitled to vote at any polling station from having an opportunity of voting at such station.