Info
Legislative Framework
LF001
Status of Electoral Law
Question: What is the status of the electoral law governing national elections?
Answer(s):
a . Part of Constitution b . Separate legislation
Comments: Constitution:
"(2) The Governor shall dissolve the Parliament not later than the expiration of four years from the date when the House of Assembly first met after the last general election before the appointed day.
(3) The Legislature shall enact a law providing for the election of seventeen or more Elected Members of the Parliament at the next general election after the appointed day, and until that election section 25(2)(b) of the Constitution shall have effect as if the reference therein to seventeen Elected Members were a reference to fifteen Elected Members."
Parliament Act:
"AN ACT TO GOVERN ELECTIONS TO THE GIBRALTAR PARLIAMENT, THE POWERS AND PRIVILEGES ATTACHING TO THE PARLIAMENT AND THE PENSIONS PAYABLE TO MEMBERS OF THE PARLIAMENT."
Source: Constitution, Annex to the Order 2, Article 4 (2,3)
https://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/constitution/Gibraltar_Constitution_Order_2006.pdf
Parliament Act Number 1950-15
https://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/articles/1950-15o.pdf
Verified: 2019/11/04
LF003
Electoral Law covers
Question: The national electoral law covers:
Answer(s):
a . National elections
Comments:
19. No person shall be entitled to vote at any election unless his name is on the register of electors; and every person whose name is on such register shall be entitled to demand and receive a ballot paper and vote at any such election unless that person has not acquired voting rights by virtue of the second proviso to section 3(1):
Provided that nothing in this section shall entitle any person to vote who is prohibited from voting by any enactment, or relieve such person from any penalty to which he may be liable for voting.
Source: Parliament Act Number 1950-15, Part II, Article 19.
https://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/articles/1950-15o.pdf
Verified: 2019/11/04
LF004
Compulsory/voluntary voting
Question: Is voting on the national level voluntary or compulsory?
Answer(s):
a . Voting is voluntary
Comments: "3. (1) The persons entitled to vote as electors at elections of members of
the Parliament (in this Act referred to as ‘the Parliament’) under the Gibraltar Constitution Order 2006 shall be those persons who–
(i) have lived in Gibraltar during the whole of the qualifying period; and
(ii) intend to live in Gibraltar either permanently or indefinitely; and
(iii) are, on the qualifying date and on the date of the poll, British citizens, British Overseas Territories citizens, British Overseas citizens, British Nationals (Overseas), British protected persons or British subjects under the British Nationality Act 1981, and are 18 years of age or over and are not subject to any legal incapacity to vote;"
Source: Parliament Act Number 1950-15, Part II, Article 3(1).
https://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/articles/1950-15o.pdf
International IDEA Voter Turnout Website (http://www.idea.int/vt/)
Verified: 2019/11/04
LF007
Electoral Disputes Agency(ies)
Question: What are the agency(ies) responsible for the first level of formal electoral disputes?
Answer(s):
a . Judiciary
Comments: 57.(1) An election petition shall be heard in open court.
(2) At the conclusion of the trial the court shall determine whether the person whose election is complained of, or any and if so, what other person was duly elected, or whether the election was void and such determination shall be final to all intents as to the matters at issue on the petition.
Source: Parliament Act Number 1950-15, Part IV, Article 57(1,2).
https://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/articles/1950-15o.pdf
Verified: 2019/11/04
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