What penalties are envisioned for offences related to voter registration?
Belgium
CODEELECTORAL - 12 AVRIL 1894
16 April 1894, lastupdate 22 August 2012
Art. 195. Whoever, in order to register on a list ofvoters, knowingly made ??false statements or produce documents he knew to besimulated, shall be punished by a fine of 26 to 200 euro.
Shall be punished with the samepenalty, whoever knowingly performed the same maneuvers in order to register a citizenon these lists or make scratches.
However, the prosecution can take placeonly if the application for registration or cancellation has been rejected by afinal decision and motivated on matters involving fraud.
Decisions of this nature are made ??bycolleges of Mayors and Aldermen, or by the courts of appeal and the documentsand information relating thereto are transmitted by the Governor to the publicprosecutor, who can also claim the process.
Theprosecution
Art. 196. Any person who, in any capacity, are incharge of the preparation of electoral rolls [...] that in order to remove avoter knowingly uses, in this work, documents falsified by alteration, deletionor addition, made ??or voluntarily will, for the same purpose, reproduceincorrectly on the electoral lists, by alteration, addition or omission, thedata provided by the parts or materials to be used to make the electoral listsshall be punished by a fine of 26 to 200 euro and imprisonment of eight tofifteen days. If the offense was committed with the purpose of obtain acitizen-elector [imprisonment is eightdays a month and a fine of fifty to five hundred euro.]
The six-month limitation established byArticle 204 will not begin to run, in respect of offenses under this section,until the day the election [...] lists and evidence relating thereto have beensent to [the governor of the province or the officer in charge or, with respectto the towns of Comines-Warneton and Fourons, respectively the Mouscrondistrict Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of the district of Tongeren].
Art. 197. Any member of a board of aldermen, alllocal councilor, who, in the exercise of its electoral jurisdiction will, onhis report, improperly reject an application for voter registration orirradicates from the lists a voter, invoking or using for this purpose, partsor documents known to be forged by alteration, deletion or addition, fabricated??or fictitious, shall be punished with imprisonment of three months to twoyears.
However, the prosecution can takeplace only if the application for registration or cancellation of the voter hasbeen a decision that has become final and involving fraud.
The requirement established by Article204 shall begin to run from that decision.
Art. 201.
It shall be liable to the samepenalties, those who, in any way, distract or retain one or more officialballots.
It shall be punished with a fine from26 to 1000 euro
1. Those to who was given a proxy votein accordance to [Article 147bis], without meeting the conditions required forthis purpose;
2. Those who, having received proxyvote, left his mandataire vote, althought he could exercise his own right tovote;
3. Those who knowingly voted on behalfof his client althought he had died, or when it was possible to the client toexercise his own right to vote;
4. Those who agreed or gave severalmandates under [Article 147bis.]
Depending on the nature of the offence:
- fine of 26 to 200 euro;
- a fine of 26 to 200 euro and imprisonment of eight to fifteen days. Ifthe offense was committed with the purpose of obtaining a citizen-elector status, imprisonment is eight days a month and afine of fifty to five hundred euro.
- imprisonment of three months to two years
- with imprisonment from three months to five yearsand a fine of one thousand to twenty thousand euros
(Penalties for accomplices of offenses referred to in paragraph 1 shall notexceed two-thirds of those applied to the authors of such offenses.)
