Section 22
Admittance to polling station
of Presidential Elections Act 1991
(1)
Subject to subsections (2) and (3A), a person must not be admitted to vote at any polling station except the one allotted to him or her.
(2)
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 or her to vote at the polling station which has been allotted to him or her, the Returning Officer may, by a certificate authorise the elector to vote at any other polling station and that polling station is deemed, for the purposes of this section, to be the polling station allotted to that elector.
(3)
The certificate mentioned in subsection (2) must be given under the hand of the Returning Officer and must state the name of the elector, the elector’s number, and description in the register of electors, and the fact that the elector is so employed as a presiding officer, police officer or in any other official capacity at a polling station.
(3A)
An overseas elector is also entitled to be admitted to vote at the overseas polling station allotted to him or her by the Registration Officer under section 13A(3) of the Parliamentary Elections Act 1954.
(4)
Unless the Returning Officer, by notification in the Gazette under this section, section 33C(3)(b), 36C or 36DA, appoints any other hour, the poll must open at 8 a.m. on the day appointed under section 16(5) and must close at 8 p.m. on that day.
(5)
The presiding officer must —
keep order in his or her polling station;
regulate the number of voters to be admitted at a time; and
exclude all other persons except the candidates, the polling agent or agents of each candidate, the Returning Officer and persons authorised in writing by the Returning Officer, the police officers on duty and other persons officially employed at the polling station.
(6)
Not more than one polling agent of each candidate shall be admitted to any polling station, except that where, at any polling station, more polling places than one have been established, not more than one polling agent of each candidate shall be admitted to each such polling place.
(7)
A polling agent whose name has not been notified to the presiding officer as required by section 45(1B) must not be admitted to a polling station.
(8)
If any person misconducts himself or herself in a polling station or fails to obey the lawful orders of the presiding officer, that person 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 authorised in writing by the presiding officer or by the Returning Officer to remove that person.
(9)
The person removed under subsection (8) must not, unless with the permission of the presiding officer, again be allowed to enter the polling station.
(10)
Any person removed under subsection (8) may, if charged with the commission in a polling station of any offence, be kept in custody until he or she can be brought before a magistrate.
(11)
The powers conferred by this section must 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 that station.