Local Councils (Elections) (Amendment) Regulations, 2013

L.N. 36 of 2013

LOCAL COUNCILS ACT

(CAP. 363)

Local Councils (Elections) (Amendment) Regulations, 2013

IN exercise of the powers conferred by article 72(1) of the Local

Councils Act, the Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs has

made the following regulations:-

The title of these regulations is the Local Councils

(Elections) (Amendment) Regulations, 2013, and these regulations

shall be read and construed as one with the Local Councils

(Elections) Regulations, 1993, hereinafter referred to as "the principal

regulations".

For the heading of Part VII of the principal regulations

there shall be substituted the following

"Voting in Retirement Homes and Hospitals".

Regulation 48 of the principal regulations shall be

substituted by the following

" Retirement

48. For the purpose of this Part, "a

home and

retirement home" means such place or places

hospitals.

principally used for the care of elderly

persons in which at least fifty voters reside

and "hospitals" means Mater Dei Hospital,

Karen Grech Hospital and Mount Carmel

Hospital in Malta, and the General Hospital in

Gozo

Provided that the provisions of regulation

49(3)(a), of regulation 50(1)(b) and of

regulation 51 shall not apply to retirement

homes not run or administered by the

Government.".

Immediately after regulation 48 of the principal

regulations, there shall be added the following new regulation

" Mixed polling

48A. (1) Notwithstanding anything to

places at

the contrary contained in these regulations,

residential

the Commission shall provide mixed polling

homes and

hospitals.

places for the purposes and in the manner

provided for by this regulation.

(2) A mixed polling place is a polling

place which contains one or more mixed

ballot boxes for different localities, as the

case may be, and where the voters mentioned

in sub-regulation (4)(a) and (b) shall vote

independently of the locality where they may

be registered in the last published Local

Councils’ Electoral Register by casting their

vote in the mixed ballot box appertaining to

the locality where they are registered.

(3) The Commission shall only

provide mixed polling places in the following

sites

(a)

at Saint Vincent de Paule;

(b) at Mater Dei Hospital

Msida,

Karen

Grech

Hospital

Gwardamanġa, Mount Carmel Hospital

Attard, and Gozo General Hospital.

(4) (a)

All voters who seven days

before polling day shall be resident, but not

registered as voters, at Saint Vincent de Paule

shall vote at the place indicated in sub-

regulation (3)(a), and it shall be the duty of

the sub-committee set up under regulation 49

to determine who these voters shall be.

(b) All voters who three days

before polling shall be registered as patients at

Mater Dei Hospital, Karen Grech Hospital,

Mount Carmel Hospital, and at the Gozo

General Hospital, shall vote in the place

indicated in sub-regulation (3)(b) and it shall

be the duty of the sub-committee set up under

regulation 49 to determine who these voters

shall be.

(c)

Notwithstanding the other

provisions of these regulations, voters

residing at Saint Vincent de Paule as well as

voters who shall vote in a hospital in

accordance with paragraph (b) shall vote on

the day prior to election day.

(5) For all effects and purposes of

these regulations a mixed polling place shall

be considered as an ordinary polling place and

the rights and duties imposed on the

Commission and persons appointed by it,

political parties, agents and candidates shall

mutatis mutandis apply.

(6) In the case of those voters voting in

the site indicated in sub-regulation (3)(a), a

copy of the list of persons entitled to vote in

such mixed polling place shall be given by the

Electoral Commission to the political parties,

at least four days prior to polling day. The list

of the persons entitled to vote in the site

indicated in sub-regulation (3)(b) shall be

given by the Electoral Commission to the

political parties by not later than midnight of

the Thursday preceding the polling date.".

Regulation 49 of the principal regulations shall be

amended as follows

(a) in the marginal note thereof, immediately after the

words "Sub-committee for Retirement Homes", there shall be

added the words "and hospitals";

(b) in sub-regulation (1) thereof, immediately after the

words "retirement homes", there shall be added the words "and

hospitals"; and

(c)

in sub-regulation (2) thereof, immediately after the

words "retirement homes", there shall be added the words "and

hospitals".

Regulation 50 of the principal regulations shall be

amended as follows

(a)

in the marginal note thereof, immediately after the

words "retirement homes", there shall be added the words "and

hospitals";

(b)

sub-regulations (2), (3) and (4) shall be renumbered

as sub-regulations (3), (4) and (5) respectively and immediately

after sub-regulation (1) thereof, there shall be added the

following new sub-regulation

"(2) Within three days of the publication of the

Notice the person responsible for the administration of

hospitals shall send to the sub-committee

(a) a list of all patients currently in the

hospitals indicating the name, a legally valid

identification document number, last known

address, ward number, name and address of the next

of kin. The person responsible for the

administration shall send updated lists of the

patients on a daily basis to the sub-committee until

the day preceding the election; and

(b) a list of all staff at the hospital

indicating the name, a legally valid identification

document number, address, grade and working

hours up to the day following the day fixed for

voting.";

(c)

in sub-regulation (4) thereof, as renumbered,

immediately after the words "of every retirement home", there

shall be added the words "and hospital"; and

(d) in sub-regulation (5) thereof, as renumbered,

immediately after the words "staff in retirement homes", there

shall be added the words "and hospitals".

Regulation 51 of the principal regulations shall be Amends

regulation 51 to

amended as follows

the principal

regulations.

(a) in the marginal note thereof, immediately after the

words "retirement homes", there shall be added the words "and

hospitals";

(b) for sub-regulation (1) thereof, there shall be

substituted the following

"(1) The voting documents of voters registered in

retirement homes shall be delivered to the voters

personally in the retirement home. Unless delivered to the

voter prior to admittance as a patient into a hospital, the

voting documents of patients in hospitals shall be delivered

to the voter personally in the hospitals. The voter may opt

to deliver the voting document to the Chairperson of the

sub-committee for safekeeping, and such Chairperson shall

return the same to the voter on the day fixed for voting or

on such earlier day as may be requested by the voter.";

(c) in sub-regulation (2) thereof, immediately

after the words "in retirement homes", there shall be added

the words "and hospitals";

(d) in sub-regulation (3) thereof, immediately

after the words "at such homes", there shall be added the

words "and hospitals" and immediately after the words "to

such homes", there shall be added the words "and

hospitals";

(e) in sub-regulation (5) thereof, immediately

after the words "enter retirement homes", there shall be

added the words "and hospitals"; and

(f) in sub-regulation (6) thereof, immediately

after the words "in a retirement home", there shall be

added the words "and hospital".

€0.45