Separate Representation of Voters Act, 1951/1966-10-05

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as amended by

Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, No. 30 of 1956 Electoral Laws Further Amendment Act, No. 8 of 1957 Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, No. 2 of 1958 Electoral Laws Amendment Act, No. 72 of 1962 Coloured Persons Representative Council Act, No. 49 of 1964 Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, No. 72 of 1965 Electoral Laws Amendment Act, No. 29 of 1966

20. (1) Subject to the provisions of section 4 (4) and of subsections (2), (3), (4) and (5) of this section, the provisions of the principal Act (including the regulations thereunder) shall mutatis mutandis apply in regard to the election of members of the House of Assembly and of the provincial council for the province of the Cape of Good Hope, and in regard to all matters incidental thereto.

(2) (a) Members of the House of Assembly or provincial councillors who under this Act are members of the House of Assembly or of the provincial council concerned at the commence­ment of the Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, 1965 (Act No. 72 of 1965), or are thereafter declared to be duly elected as members of the House of Assembly or as pro­vincial councillors, including any such members or councillors declared to be elected under the provisions of section 88 of the principal Act, shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other law contained, hold office for a period determined by effluxion of time, five years after the date of the last general election of mem­bers of the House of Assembly or of provincial councillors, as the case may be, under this Act.

(b) For the purpose of providing for a general election of members of the House of Assembly or of provincial councillors under this Act, a special proclamation shall be issued in terms mutatis mutandis of section 35 of the principal Act, on a date not later than seven days after the termination of the period of office of the sitting members or councillors.

(c) Any reference in section 53 or section 71 (2) of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1961 (Act No. 32 of 1961), to the dissolu­tion of the House of Assembly or a provincial council, as the case may be, shall, in relation to a member of the House of Assembly or to a provincial councillor elected under this Act, be construed as a reference to the date on which such member’s or councillor’s period of office expires by effluxion of time.

(d) For the purposes of this section a general election of members of the House of Assembly or of provincial councillors to whom this Act applies, means an election at which all those members of the House of Assembly or those provincial councillors are to be elected on the same day.

(3) At elections of members of the House of As­sembly or provincial councillors under this Act no person other than a non-European or a white person shall be nominated or appointed as an election agent or a subagent, polling agent or messenger.

(4) The Minister may make regulations to provide for the special requirements relating to the procedure to be followed at elections under the provisions of this Act, which regulations may amend or modify or differ from any regulations framed under the prin­cipal Act and may provide that­—

more than one polling station may be established in a polling district for the convenience of voters;

no polling station shall be established in a polling district in which less than fifty voters are registered;

voters who are registered in polling districts in which less than fifty voters are registered may vote as absent or special voters;

voters who are resident or employed more than five miles, by the nearest practicable route, from a polling station in the electoral division, may vote as absent or special voters; and

applications to vote as absent voters shall not be received by returning officers later than four o’clock on the afternoon of the eighth day before the polling day.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1) section 71quat (1) of the principal Act shall be construed as if the words “every magistrate’s office and at” and the words “every electoral officer and” do not occur therein.