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Article 46
 

(1) At a Dáil election a person may nominate himself as a candidate or may, with his consent, be nominated by another person (being a person registered as a Dáil elector in the constituency for which he proposes to nominate the candidate) as proposer.


(2) Each candidate shall be nominated by a separate nomination paper in the form prescribed by regulations made by the Minister. The form of nomination paper may include –


(a) a note of the qualifications, disqualifications and incapacities as regards election to and membership of the Dáil,
(b) a note of the provisions that apply under this Part to the nomination of a candidate referred to in subsection (5), including:
Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012, Section 43


(i) the procedure for assenting under subsections (5)(a) and (6),
(ii) the making of a deposit under section 47, and
(iii) the fact a candidate referred to in subsection (5) may either follow the foregoing procedure for assenting or make a deposit under section 47,
and


(c) a form of declaration, to be signed by the candidate or his proposer, that he has read the note referred to in paragraph (a) and believes the candidate to be eligible for election and that the candidate has consented to the nomination.


(3) Each nomination paper shall state the names (the surname being stated first), and the address, the occupation (if any) and the gender of the candidate.


(4) A candidate may include in his nomination paper the name of the political party registered in the Register of Political Parties as a party organised to contest a Dáil election of which he is a candidate, provided that, at the time the nomination paper is delivered to the returning officer, a certificate in the form directed by the Minister (in this Act referred to as a ‘certificate of political affiliation’) authenticating the candidature is produced to the returning officer, being a certificate signed by the officer or officers of such party whose name or names appear in the said Register pursuant to section 25(7)(d). Where such a certificate is produced, the returning officer, provided he is satisfied that it is appropriate to do so in relation to the candidate, shall cause -


(a) a statement of the name of the relevant political party and a copy of the political party’s emblem as registered in the Register of Political Parties to be specified in relation to the candidate on all the ballot papers, and
(b) a statement of the name of the relevant political party to be specified in relation to the candidate on notices.


(5) In the case of a candidate whose candidature is not authenticated by a certificate of political affiliation under subsection (4), one or other of the following paragraphs shall, before the expiration of the time appointed by this Act for receiving nominations, be complied with:


(a) the candidate’s nomination shall have been assented to by 30 persons (excluding the candidate and any proposer) who are registered as Dáil electors in the constituency (each of whom in this Part is referred to as an ‘assentor’),
(b) the candidate, or someone on his behalf, shall have made a deposit in accordance with section 47.


(6) The following provisions apply in respect of the assents required by subsection (5)(a) to the nomination of a candidate referred to in that subsection:


(a) to assent to the nomination, an assentor shall make a statutory declaration in the prescribed form stating the following:


(i) his number (including polling district letters) on the register of Dáil electors in force on the date of the making of the statutory declaration,
(ii) his place of ordinary residence in respect of which he is registered in the register of Dáil electors referred to in subparagraph (i),
(iii) his contact details, including telephone numbers (if any),
(iv) the name of the Dáil constituency, on the date of the making of the statutory declaration, in which he is ordinarily resident,
(v) the name and address of the candidate,
(vi) the form of identification produced by him in accordance with paragraph (b), including any number on it that distinguishes it from similar forms held by others,
(vii) that he assents to the nomination of the candidate,
(viii) that he has not assented to the nomination of any other candidate in respect of that Dáil election;


(b) when making the statutory declaration referred to in paragraph (a), the assentor shall produce to the person taking and receiving the declaration a prescribed photographic identification and shall, on so doing, be deemed, for the purposes of the Statutory Declarations Act 1938, to be personally known to the person taking and receiving the declaration;
(c) the assent shall have effect as respects, and only as respects, the Dáil constituency in which the place referred to in paragraph (a)(ii) is situate at the time of the Dáil election concerned;
(d) subject to paragraph (e), the assent shall have effect as respects, and only as respects, the Dáil election in the constituency referred to in paragraph (c) held next after the making of the statutory declaration;
(e) notwithstanding paragraph (d), the assent shall cease to have effect if the register of Dáil electors referred to in paragraph (a) ceases to be in force before the holding of the Dáil election referred to in paragraph (d);
(f) the candidate or proposer shall attach the required number of statutory declarations (that is to say, the 30 statutory declarations constituting the assents) to the nomination paper and the nomination paper delivered to the returning officer in accordance with section 50 shall have the declarations so attached;
(g) where more than the required number of statutory declarations is attached to the nomination paper, the declarations (up to the required number) first attached to the nomination paper shall be taken into account to the exclusion of any others;
(h) it shall be lawful for a member of the Garda Síochána or an official of the registration authority to take and receive a statutory declaration referred to in paragraph (a) and any such declaration shall be stamped by the member or official concerned;


(i) a registration authority and a returning officer shall arrange for the provision of forms for the purposes of making a statutory declaration referred to in paragraph (a) free of charge to any person who requests such a form.


(7) For the purposes of subsections (5)(a) and (6), a person whose application to have his name entered in a supplement to the register of Dáil electors is approved by the registration authority at or before the latest time for delivery of a nomination paper to the returning officer shall be deemed to be registered as a Dáil elector in the applicable constituency.


(8) Where a candidate is not the candidate of a political party registered in the Register of Political Parties as a party organised to contest a Dáil election he shall be entitled to enter after his name on the nomination paper the expression ‘Non-Party’ and, if he does so, the returning officer shall cause a statement of that expression to be specified in relation to the candidate on all the ballot papers and on notices.


(9) The returning officer shall provide nomination papers during the usual office hours, at such place or places as are named in the notice of election, on each week-day during the period beginning on the publication of that notice and ending at 12 noon on the latest date for receiving nominations and he shall supply a nomination paper or papers free of charge to any person applying therefor, but the use of a paper supplied by the returning officer pursuant to this section shall not be obligatory at a Dáil election, provided that the nomination paper used at the election is in the prescribed form.


(10) Every reference in this section to the Register of Political Parties shall be construed as a reference to the copy of that Register sent to the returning officer pursuant to section 25C(7).