PART II

ELECTORAL OFFENCES

Offences by any person

3. (1) Any person who-

(a) knowingly makes any false statement on or in connection with any application to be placed on any register of electors;

(b) forges or fraudulently defaces or fraudulently destroys any nomination paper, or delivers to a returning officer any nomination paper knowing the same to be forged;

(c) forges or counterfeits or fraudulently defaces or fraudulently destroys any ballot paper or the official mark on any ballot paper;

(d) without due authority supplies any ballot paper to any person;

(e) sells or offers to sell any ballot paper to any person or purchases or offers to purchase any ballot paper from any person;

(f) not being a person entitled to be in possession of any ballot paper which has been marked with any authorized mark has any such ballot paper in his possession;

(g) puts into any ballot box anything other than the ballot paper which he is authorized by law to put in;

(h) without due authority takes out of the polling station any ballot paper or is found in possession of any ballot paper outside a polling station;

(i) without due authority destroys, takes, opens, or otherwise interferes with any ballot box, ballot paper or packet of ballot papers in use or intended to be used for the purposes of an election;

(j) without due authority prints any ballot paper or what purports to be or is capable of being used as a ballot paper at an election;

(k) for the purposes of an election, manufactures, constructs, imports, has in his possession, supplies or uses, or causes to be manufactured, constructed, imported, supplied or used, any appliance, device or mechanism by which a ballot paper may be extracted, affected or manipulated after having been deposited in a ballot box during the polling at any election;

(l) votes at any election when he is not entitled to vote thereat;

(m) prints any advertisement, handbill, placard or poster which refers to an election and contains a reproduction of a ballot paper, or of what purports to be a ballot paper, to be used or likely to be used at such election,

(n) obstructs or prevents a voter who is otherwise entitled to vote from voting at an election; or
(o) votes in an election at more than one polling station in the same constituency or a different constituency,

shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to both such imprisonment and fine and, subject to any provision to the contrary in any written law relating to any election, shall until the expiration of five years from such conviction, be incapable of being registered or listed as an elector or of voting at any election or of being elected at any election, and if at that date he has been elected at any election, his seat shall be vacated from the date of such conviction:

Provided that nothing in paragraph (m) shall be deemed to prohibit, during the campaign period, the printing in any such advertisement, handbill, placard or poster of the name or symbol of one candidate only, together with a reproduction of a cross or other mark indicating approval of any such name or symbol.

(2) Any person who has been convicted of an offence under subsection 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948 [Act 15], which is an offence by reason of paragraph 3(1)(f) of that Act shall, until the expiration of five years from such conviction, be incapable of being elected at any election, and if at that date of such conviction he has been elected at any election, his seat shall be vacated from that date.

Offences by election officers

4. Any officer, clerk, interpreter or other person having any duty to perform pursuant to any written law relating to any election who-

(a) makes, in any record, return or other document which he is required to keep or make under such written law, any entry which he knows or has reasonable cause to believe to be false, or does not believe to be true;

(b) permits any person whom he knows or has reasonable cause to believe not to be a blind person or an incapacitated person to vote in the manner provided for blind persons or incapacitated persons, as the case may be;

(C) refuses to permit any person whom he knows or has reasonable cause to believe to be a blind person or an incapacitated person to vote in the manner provided for blind persons or incapacitated persons, as the case may be;

(d) wilfully prevents any person from voting at the polling station at which he knows or has reasonable cause to believe such person is entitled to vote;

(e) wilfully rejects or refuses to count any ballot paper which he knows or has reasonable cause to believe is validly cast for any candidate in accordance with the provisions of such written law;

(f) wilfully counts any ballot paper as being cast for any candidate, which he knows or has reasonable cause to believe was not validly cast for such candidate; or

(g) is without reasonable cause guilty of any act or omission in breach of his official duty,

shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine not exceeding five thousand nnggit or to both such imprisonment and fine and, subject to any specific provision to the contrary in any written law relating to any election, shall until the expiration of five years from such conviction, be incapable of being registered or listed as an elector or of voting at any election or of being elected at any election, and if at that date he has been elected at any election, his seat shall be vacated from the date of such conviction.

Offences of promoting feelings of ill-will or hostility

4A. (1) Any person who, before, during or after an election, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, does any act or makes any statement with a view or with a tendency to promote feelings of ill-will, discontent of hostility between persons of the same, race or different races or of the same class different classes of the population of Malaysia in order to induce any elector or voter to vote or refrain from voting at an election or to procure or endeavour to procure the election of any person shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to both such imprisonment and fine.

(2) Subject to any specific provison to the contrary in any written law relating to an election, any person who is convicted of an offence under this section shall, until the expiration of five years from such conviction, be incapable of being registered or listed as an elector or of voting at an election or of being elected at an election, and if at that date he has been elected at an election, his seat shall be vacated from the date of such conviction.

Maintenance of secrecy at elections

5.(1) Every officer, clerk, interpreter, candidate, agen and any other person (hereinafter in this section referred to as an "authorized person") authorized to attend any proceedings connected with the issue or receipt of postal ballot papers, or at a polling station, or at the counting of the votes, shall, before so attending make an oath of secrecy substantially in Form A in the First Schedule.

(2) Every officer, clerk, interpreter, candidate, agent and authorized person in attendance at a polling station shall maintain, and aid in maintaining, the secrecy of the voting in such station, and shall not communicate, except for some purpose authorized by law, before the poll is closed, to any person any information as to the name or number on the register of electors of any elector who has or has not applied for a ballot paper or voted at that station, or as to the official mark, but the total number of voters who have voted at any station at any time before the poll is closed may, in the discretion of the presiding officer, be divulged to a candidate or his agent or a police officer authorized to attend or on duty at the polling station.

(3) No such officer, clerk, interpreter, candidate, agent, police officer or authorized person and no person whosoever shall attempt to obtain in the polling station information as to the candidate for whom any voter in such station is about to vote or has voted, or communicate at any time to any person any information obtained in a polling station as to the candidate for whom any voter in such station is about to vote or has voted, or as to the number of the ballot paper given to any voter at such station.

(4) Every officer, clerk, interpreter, candidate, agent, police officer and authorized person, in attendance at the counting of the votes shall maintain, and aid in maintaining, the secrecy of the voting, and shall not attempt to communicate any information obtained at such counting as to the candidate for whom any vote is given by any particular ballot paper.

(5) No person except a presiding officer acting for a purpose authorized by any written law relating to any election or a person authorized by the presiding officer and acting for such purpose as aforesaid, shall communicate or attempt to communicate with any voter after such voter has received a ballot paper and before he has placed the same in a ballot box.

(6) Every person attending any proceedings in connection with the issue or the receipt of ballot papers for persons voting by post shall maintain and aid in maintaining, the secrecy of the voting and shall not without lawful excuse-

(a) communicate, before the poll is closed, to any person any information obtained at those proceedings as to any official perforation, stamp or mark to be used in connection with any ballot paper;

(b) communicate to any person at any time any information obtained at those proceedings as to the number of the ballot paper sent to any person;

(c) attempt to ascertain at the proceedings in connection with the receipt of ballot papers the number on any ballot paper; or

(d) attempt to ascertain at the proceedings in connection with the receipt of the ballot papers the candidate for whom any vote is given in any particular ballot paper or communicate any information with respect thereto obtained at those proceedings.

(7) Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of this section shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to a fine not exceeding three thousand ringgit or to both such imprisonment and fine.

Offences against this Part

6. (1) Every person who abets the commission of or attempts to commit an offence specified in this Part shall be liable, on conviction, to the punishment and disqualifications prescribed for that offence.

(2) Every offence under this Part shall be a seizable offence within the meaning of the Criminal Procedure Code [Act 593].

(3) In a prosecution for an offence in relation to a nomination paper, ballot box, ballot paper or marking instrument at an election, the property in such nomination paper, ballot box, ballot paper or marking instrument, as well as the property in the counterfoil of any ballot paper, may be stated to be in the returning officer at that election.

(4) A prosecution for an offence under this Part shall not be instituted without the sanction of the Public Prosecutor.