Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Elections
62. Appointment of election agent
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On or before the day of nomination at an election, a person must be appointed in writing by or on behalf of each candidate as his or her agent for that election and the person is called in this Act the election agent.
election
“election” means an election for the purpose of electing a Member of Parliament;
A candidate may appoint himself or herself as election agent, and is thereupon, so far as circumstances admit, subject to the provisions of this Act, both as a candidate and as an election agent, and any reference in this Act to an election agent is construed to refer to the candidate acting in his or her capacity as an election agent.
candidate
“candidate” means a person who is nominated as a candidate for election to any seat in Parliament;
Where there is no appointment in force under subsection (1) or (2) of an election agent of a candidate for the election, the candidate must be treated, and so far as circumstances admit and subject to the provisions of this Act —
both as a candidate and as an election agent; and
as appointed under subsection (1) as his or her election agent for that election and deemed so declared under subsection (3),and any reference in this Act to an election agent is construed to refer to the candidate acting in his or her capacity as an election agent by virtue of this subsection.
On or before the day of nomination, the name and address of the election agent of each candidate must be declared in writing by the candidate or some other person on the candidate’s behalf to the Returning Officer using either an electronic system or a form approved by the Returning Officer for the election.
Returning Officer
“Returning Officer” means the Returning Officer appointed under section 3;
The Returning Officer must then immediately, by affixing a notice in a conspicuous place outside the Returning Officer’s office, give public notification of the name and address of every election agent so declared or deemed declared.
Only one person may hold an appointment as the election agent for a particular candidate at any one time, but the appointment, whether the election agent appointed be the candidate himself or herself or not, may be revoked.
In the event of such revocation or of the death of an election agent, whether the event is before, during or after the election, another election agent must immediately be appointed, and his or her name and address declared in writing to the Returning Officer, who must immediately give public notice of the name and address in the manner specified in subsection (3A).
A principal election agent for a group of candidates must be appointed by the candidates from among their election agents and the provisions of this section relating to the appointment and revocation of appointment of an election agent and public notification thereof apply, with the necessary modifications, in respect of a principal election agent.
principal election agent
“principal election agent” means an election agent of a candidate in a group who has been appointed under section 62(5) as the principal election agent for that group;
When there is no appointment in force under subsection (5) of a principal election agent for a group of candidates in an election, but there are appointments of election agents under subsection (1), (2) or (2A) in force, the election agent of the candidate whose name is to appear first in the group in the ballot papers under section 40(3)(a), must be treated as appointed as the principal election agent of the group in relation to the election and deemed declared under subsection (3) as that principal election agent.
group
“group” means a group of not less than 3 but not more than 6 candidates nominated for any election in any group representation constituency in accordance with section 27B;
The election agent of a candidate (called candidate A) belonging to a group of candidates may act by the election agent of any other candidate belonging to the same group (called a sub‑agent) whom the firstmentioned election agent authorises in writing in respect of such expenses incurred on account of or in respect of the conduct or management of the election for the candidates as are named in the authority, and —
anything done by or to the sub-agent is deemed to be done by the election agent and sub‑agent jointly; and
candidate A suffers the like incapacity as if any act or default of the sub‑agent had been the act or default of candidate A’s election agent.
To avoid doubt, nothing in subsection (6) prevents an election agent of a candidate belonging to a group from authorising in writing more than one sub-agent from among the respective election agents of the other candidates belonging to the same group.
The authorisation of a sub-agent under subsection (6) —
is not vacated by the election agent who authorised the sub‑agent ceasing to be an election agent; and
may be revoked by whoever is for the time being the election agent.
The references in sections 64, 65(1) and (1A), 66, 68 and 69 to an election agent of a candidate (called candidate A) are, in relation to an election in a group representation constituency, to be taken as references to the election agent —
group representation constituency
“group representation constituency” means any electoral division declared to be a group representation constituency under section 8A(1)(a);
acting by himself or herself; or
acting by the election agent of any other candidate belonging to the same group as candidate A whom the firstmentioned election agent has authorised in writing under subsection (6) to act as his or her sub‑agent in respect of such expenses incurred on account of or in respect of the conduct or management of the election for the candidates as are named in that authority.