Last instance body dealing with electoral disputes

THEREPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT (1944-11-20)

PART III Electoral Procedure

23 Procedure at nomination

(1) At ten o'clock in themorning on nomination day the returning officer and the election clerk shallboth attend at the place specified in the election notice under section 22 asthe place for the nomination of candidates and shall there remain until two o'clockin the afternoon of the same day for the purpose of receiving the nominationsof such candidates as the electors desire to nominate. After two o'clock in theafternoon on nomination day no further nominations shall be received.

 (2) Any ten or more electors qualified to votein a constituency for which an election is to be held may nominate any personqualified to be a member of the House of Representatives as a candidate bysigning a nomination paper in the form set out in the Second Schedule and causingsuch nomination paper to be handed to the returning officer between the hoursreferred to in subsection (1):

Provided that no candidateshall be deemed not to have been validly nominated by reason only of the factthat subsequent to nomination day any person by whom his nomination paper wassigned is struck or any of the official lists for the relevant constituency.

 (3) Every nomination paper shall specify-

(a) such particulars of thename, address and occupation of the candidate as are sufficient to identifyhim; and

(b) his address for serviceof process and papers under this Act; and

(c) the name, address andoccupation of his official agent (if any).

(4) Each candidate shall benominated by a separate nomination paper.

(5) No nomination paper shallbe valid or acted upon by the returning officer unless it is accompanied by-

(a) the consent in writingof the person therein nominated, except where such person is absent from theconstituency in which the election is to be held, when such absence shall bestated in the nomination paper; and

(b) a deposit of threethousand dollars in legal tender.

(6) The returning officershall not accept any deposit until after all the other steps necessary tocomplete the nomination of the candidate have been taken, and upon hisaccepting any deposit he shall give to the person by whom it is paid to him areceipt therefor which shall be conclusive evidence that the candidate has beenduly and regularly nominated.

(7) At the close of thetime for nominating the candidates the returning officer shall deliver to everycandidate or the agent of a candidate applying therefor a duly certified listof the names of the several candidates who have been nominated.

24 Disposal of deposit

(1) The full amount ofevery deposit made under subsection (5) of section 23 shall forthwith after itsreceipt be transmitted by the returning officer to the Accountant- General.

(2) The full amount ofevery deposit shall be returned by the Accountant-General to the person whomade such deposit or his personal representatives, upon the production by himor his personal representatives, as the case may be, of a certificate from theChief Electoral Officer that the candidate was elected or polled not less thanone-eighth of the total number of votes cast at the election, or died beforethe close of the poll on polling day.

(3) Where any candidatewithdraws from the election in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1)of section 25, and the Chief Electoral Officer is satisfied that such withdrawalwas consequent upon circumstances over which the candidate had no control andwhich he had no cause on or before nomination day to anticipate, the ChiefElectoral Officer may certify accordingly to the Accountant-General.

(4) Where the ChiefElectoral Officer certifies in accordance with the provisions of subsection(3), the Accountant-General shall refund to the candidate or to his personal representativeone moiety of the deposit.

(5) Except as otherwiseprovided in this section, every deposit under subsection (5) of section 23shall at the expiration of one month from the conclusion of the election in respectof which it was made, be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

25 Withdrawal of candidates

(1) Any candidate maywithdraw at any time not less than one hundred and sixty-eight hours before theopening of the poll on polling day, by filing with the returning officer a declarationin writing to that effect signed by himself, and attested by the signaturesoftwo qualified electors in the constituency, and any votes cast for thecandidate who has so withdrawn shall be null and void.

(2) When a candidate haswithdrawn after the ballots are printed, the returning office shall advise, byletter or telegraph, each presiding officer of his constituency of such withdrawal,and, when time permits, shall distribute to each presiding officer a printed noticeof the withdrawal. On polling day each presiding officer shall post up a copyof the printed notice of withdrawal in a conspicuous place in his pollingstation. If time does not permit of the printing and the distribution of suchnotice, the presiding officer, upon being advised by letter or telegram by thereturning officer of the withdrawal of any candidate, shall himself prepare byhand a notice to that effect and post it up in a conspicuous place in hispolling station. In either case the presiding officer shall, when delivering aballot to each elector, inform such elector of the withdrawal of the candidate.

(3) If, after thewithdrawal, there remains only one candidate, the returning officer shall returnas duly elected the candidate so remaining without waiting for the day fixedfor holding the poll.

26 Procedure on death ofnominated candidate

(1) Whenever, before theclosing of the poll, the returning officer becomes aware that any candidate hasdied since the close of the nominations, he shall' after communicating with theChief Electoral Officer, adjourn the election to some day being not more thanone month from the day originally fixed for the election.

(2) Whenever any electionis adjourned in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1), theprovisions of subsection (1) of section 22 shall apply as if the day upon whichthe election is adjourned were the day referred to in such subsection, and theday to which the election is adjourned were the day specified in the writ.

(3) Full particulars of anyaction taken under this section shall be reported by the returning officer tothe Chief Electoral Officer with the return to the writ.

27 Return by acclamation

(1) Whenever only onecandidate has been nominated within the time fixed for that purpose thereturning officer shall forthwith make his return to the Chief Electoral Officer,in the form set out in the Second Schedule, that such candidate is duly electedfor the said constituency and shall send within forty-eight hours a duplicateor certified copy of such return to the person elected.

(2) The returning officershall include in his return to the Chief Electoral Officer a report of hisproceedings and of any nomination proposed and rejected for noncompliance with therequirements of this Act.

(3) Nothing in this Actshall be construed to impose any liability upon any person nominated as acandidate by others without his consent, unless he has afterwards given hisassent to such nomination or has been elected.

ElectoralCommission of Jamaica,

The legislation doesn’t provideEDR mechanism for nomination and registration of the candidate. Generalinformation on candidate nomination procedure was provided.