Home > 1.6.2 Second round of voting > MALTA - General Elections Act
 
 
 
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Article 2
 

(1) In this Act and in any regulations made thereunder, unless the context otherwise requires -


"ballot box" means a box wherein voters are obliged to place their marked ballot papers;


"Commission" shall mean the Electoral Commission established by article 60 of the Constitution;


Electronic Counting System" means the process, computer program and/or computer hardware, other equipment, data and services as may be necessary in order to:


(a) maintain relevant data in relation to the election being held; (b) take an image of each ballot paper and interpret the preferences;


(c) establish a link between each vote stored electronically and the equivalent ballot papers by means of a unique identifier;


(d) process the collected data and ballots in such manner as to calculate the number of votes cast for each candidate at the election and determine the final result in terms of this Act; and


(e) ensure the retention of proper records;


"House" means the House of Representatives established by the Constitution; 


"an identification document" means a document which is a legally valid identification document for the purposes of the Identity Card and other Identity Documents Act;


"non-searchable" means not capable of being searched on the basis of name, surname or Identity Card number;


"official mark" means the stamp which the Commission and the political parties direct the Assistant Commissioner as respectively nominated by each of them, to use on the ballot paper prior to giving such ballot paper to the voter and may be of such form as each of them may determine provided that it may not in any way constitute any form of propaganda and the marks of the political parties shall not be necessary for the validity of the ballot paper. Political parties opting to use official marks shall deposit an imprint of the stamp to be so used at least one hour before the start of the poll;


''the period of time reserved for viewing" means the period of time which starts from such time when the Commission grants access to the party delegates to the images of each Electronic Ballot together with their interpretation and to the complete data set containing the preferences of voters as shown in the Electronic Ballots, and which expires four hours after the time the Commission forwards a copy of the Draft Result to party delegates in terms of regulation 13;


"political party" shall, for the purposes only of articles 10 and 14, mean any person or group of persons who having contested the general election under one name is represented in the House by, at least, one member or was so represented when the House was last dissolved, and in all other cases "political party" shall mean any person or group of persons contesting the election as one group bearing the same name;


"polling booth" means the room wherein voters attend on the day of the poll to receive and mark a ballot paper and insert the same in a ballot box;


"polling day" means the proper day established for voting in the President’s Writ referred to in article 44;


"polling place" means the school, building or other complex or structure wherein one or more polling booths are situated and shall, saving the provisions of article 66, include the grounds, if any, of such complex or structure;


"the first voting day" means the Saturday before polling day when advanced voting takes place according to the particular provisions of this Act, by voters being abroad or who shall be recovered in a hospital on polling day, by residents in homes for the elderly, by members of the Commission and by residents of the Corradino Correctional Facility;


"the second voting day" means the Tuesday before polling day when voting takes place according to the particular provisions of this Act, by voters who are assigned as Assistant Electoral Commissioners;


"the third voting day" means the Thursday before polling day when voting takes place according to the particular provisions of this Act, by voters recovered in hospitals;


"voting compartment" means such part of a polling booth wherein voters are to mark their ballot papers, and which is to be furnished with an adequate writing surface and instruments for such purpose;


"voting document"' means the voting document which is to be forwarded to voters in terms of article 46. 


(2) Whenever by this Act a penalty is attached to the  performance of any act "before, during or after", an election, no  account shall be taken of anything done earlier than - 


(a) in the case of any election held in consequence of a  dissolution of Parliament under article 76(1) of the  Constitution, the issue of the Proclamation dissolving  the House; 


(b) in the case of any election held in consequence of a  dissolution of Parliament under article 76(2) of the  Constitution of Malta, three months before the date of  such dissolution.