Page:Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021.pdf/179

Rh ::(b) the candidate applies to an Election Judge or a Judge sitting in the General Division of the High Court and shows that the failure to give the declaration or the false statement in the declaration (as the case may be) has arisen by reason of the candidate’s illness, or by reason of inadvertence or of any reasonable cause of a like nature, and not by reason of any want of good faith on the part of the candidate,
 * the Judge may, after notice of the application, and on production of evidence of the grounds stated in the application, and of the good faith of the application, and otherwise, as to the Judge seems fit, and after giving the other candidates, the Returning Officer and any elector within the electoral division an opportunity of being heard, make such order for allowing an authorised excuse for the failure to give that declaration or for the false statement in that declaration (as the case may be) as the Judge considers just.
 * (2) The order under subsection (1) may make the allowance conditional upon the making of the declaration in a modified form or within an extended time, and upon the compliance with such other terms as to the Election Judge or a Judge sitting in the General Division of the High Court (as the case may be) seems best calculated for carrying into effect the objects of this Act.
 * (3) An order under subsection (1) allowing an authorised excuse relieves the candidate applying for the order from any liability or consequences under this Act in respect of the matter excused by the order.
 * (4) Where it is proved by the candidate to the Election Judge or a Judge sitting in the General Division of the High Court (as the case may be) that—
 * (a) any act or omission of the candidate’s election agent in relation to the conduct of election activity for the purpose of procuring the electoral success of the candidate, or the group of candidates of whom the candidate is part, was without the sanction or connivance of the candidate; and