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Article 46
 

(1) Within nineteen days of the publication of the Writ, the Commission shall forward to each voter, whose name appears in the last revised Electoral Register, a document hereinafter referred to as the 'voting document' in the form set out in the Seventh Schedule to this Act and made of such security paper and material and in such manner as in the opinion of the Commission provides adequate security against forgery. Voting documents shall be numbered consecutively, each document having such distinctive number stamped on the face of it:

Provided that wherever the Commission is satisfied that a person whose name appears on the Electoral Register is dead, the relative voting document shall not be forwarded, and where such voting document has been forwarded the Commission shall withdraw it.

Provided further that the Commission shall not forward a voting document to any voter in respect of whom the Commission does not possess a photograph, and in respect of such voters the Commission shall following the following procedure

(i) within three days of the publication of the writ, the Commission shall publish in the Gazette a list of the said voters stating their name, surname, place of residence and identity card number;

(ii) the names of such voters shall not be published in the list mentioned in subsection (5) of this section;

(iii) the voting document of such voters shall only be issued if the voter satisfies the requirements of section 47 of this Act and shall be in accordance with the provisions of that section.

(2) The political parties shall be granted all reasonable facilities to watch the printing of all voting documents, to check the exactness thereof and generally to ensure that only voting documents of voters entitled to receive them are printed. The Commission shall also print on the voting document such reasonable security code as requested by the political parties and as the Commission may think fit, provided that the political parties shall deliver such security code to the Commission immediately prior to the start of printing of the voting documents or not later than such time, not being prior to twenty-four hours prior to such printing, that the Commission may establish because of technical necessity; the delegates shall be given the facility to verify the exactness thereof even by means of a dummy run of the process and by means of an audit trail that establishes the validity of the system at any stage of the process and to be given a copy of the audit trail.

(3) The voting documents printed in accordance with the previous subsection of this section shall, until such time as they are forwarded to voters, be kept in boxes sealed with the seal of the Commission. The party delegates shall have the right to affix their own seals to such boxes and to be present whenever such seals are broken. This section shall mutatis mutandis also apply with regard to the voting documents which remain undistributed, in terms of subsection (4) of this section, when voting documents are issued in terms of subsection (6) of this section, and to the voting documents which remain undistributed.

(4) The voting document shall be served on each voter by a police officer or by any other person appointed for the purpose by the Commission, and such document shall be deemed to have been served by delivery to the person to whom it is addressed or to an adult person, who either resides at the same address or is in his employment, at the address of the voter as shown in the Electoral Register. The political parties shall have the right to each nominate one representative to accompany each police officer or other person effecting service as aforesaid.

(5) When the Commissioners are unable to effect service of the document aforesaid they shall as soon as possible and in no case later than fifteen days from the time established in subsection (1) of this section, publish in the Gazette a list containing the names, identity card number and addresses of the persons on whom the voting document has not been served, and shall state the reason why service has not been effected.

(6) Any person on whom the voting document has not been served and whose name appears in the list published in accordance with the preceding subsection, may up to the Thursday immediately, preceding the day of the voting, appear personally before one of the Commissioners or other person appointed by the Commission to act on behalf of the Commissioners and claim delivery of the document.

(7) The Commissioner or other person appointed by the Commission to act on behalf of the Commissioners may examine on oath any person so appearing for the purpose of ascertaining his identity and of establishing his claim to receive the document:

(8) The Commission shall publish the place and times when voters may take delivery of their voting documents in terms of subsection (6) of this section. The Commission may designate any place for the collection of undelivered voting documents provided that the Commission shall allow a sufficient period for the collection of documents from each locality and a further period of time for collection from its office

(9) Notwithstanding anything contained in subsections (6), (7) and (8) of this section, where the Commission is aware that any person whose name appears on the list mentioned in subsection (5) of this section is registered in a retirement home, or is in a hospital, or suffers from a disability or is bed-ridden or is otherwise physically unable to appear at one of the places designated by the Commission in terms of subsection (8) of this section to claim delivery of his voting document, it shall be the duty of the Commission to effect service of such document on the person concerned either through one of the Commissioners or by any person appointed for the purpose by the Commission in their stead. The Commissioner or person appointed as aforesaid may examine such person on oath for the purpose of establishing his identity and of establishing the claim to receive the document. The document aforesaid shall not be delivered to such person unless he produces his identity card to the' Commissioner or person appointed as aforesaid, as the case may be.

(10) If for any reason whatsoever other than any of the reasons mentioned in section 47 of this Act, the Commission decides that it is necessary to reprint any voting document or documents it shall immediately inform the political parties accordingly giving them all relative information thereto. Any documents so repented shall bear the mark 'REPRINT' which mark shall not in any way obscure any of the information contained in the document.

(11) The political parties shall be given the faculty to supervise the process mentioned in the preceding subsections.

Provided that the document aforesaid shall not be delivered to him unless he produces his identity card to the Commissioners or other person appointed by the Commission to act on behalf of the Commissioners.