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Article 50
 

(1) The Commission shall, not earlier than thirteen days but not later than ten days before the poll, print such number of ballot papers as may be necessary for the poll in such form and on such material as may be prescribed under this Act. Not later than five days from the printing of the ballot papers, the Commission shall produce a Braille template for use as a guide on the ballot paper as well as a playback listening device by which a blind person may recognize the political parties and their candidates in the same manner as they are printed. Such materials shall be available for reasonable scrutiny by the representatives of the political parties contesting the poll to ascertain the transparency ofthe procedure, which scrutiny shall be exercised not later than three days before the poll. Should no objection be raised the materials shall be deemed to have been approved by the Commission:


Provided that any objection raised by any political party representative shall be decided by the Commission within twenty four hours of it being raised and should the objection be accepted by the Commission any alteration or amendment to the material shall be made within twenty-four hours of the decision of the Commission and communicated to the political party representatives.


(2) The Commission shall ensure that ballot papers are made of such security paper and carry such markings as to ensure that they may not be duplicated and not later than two days prior to the commencement of the voting, the Commission shall cause to be published in the Government Gazette the number of ballot papersprinted for each electoral division and the number to be distributed to each individual polling booth.


(3) The ballot-paper of each voter shall consist of a paper in the form set out in the Eighth Schedule of this Act, containing a list ofcandidates described by the name (including any nickname), address and profession or occupation as given in their respective nomination paper and as approved by the Electoral Commissioners.


(4) Candidates shall be arranged by political party and, withineach party group alphabetically in the order of their surname. If there are two or more candidates of one party with the same surname, they will be arranged in order of their other name or names.


(5) Every political party contesting the election shall provide the Commission with the names of the candidates contesting the election in its own interest. Such list shall be conclusive evidence as to whether a particular candidate belongs to that political party.


(6) If supplied by the party to which he belongs, there shall be printed on the ballot paper immediately after the name of each candidate belonging to that party any badge or device, approved by the Electoral Commission, indicating the political party, if any, to which the candidate belongs, or otherwise calculated to assist the identification of the candidate by the voter.


(7) Ballot-papers shall show different colours for parties contesting all electoral divisions and having not less than four candidates in each division. Such colours shall be assigned by the Electoral Commission:


Provided that any party may decline the colour so assigned to it, and in any such case the ballot paper shall not show any special colour for that party.


(8) Parties will be placed on the ballot paper in alphabetical order.