Parliamentary Election Amendment Act 1997
THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION AMENDMENT ACT 1997

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BERMUDA
1997 : 22

THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION AMENDMENT ACT 1997

[Date of Assent 11 July 1997]

[Operative Date 11 July 1997]

WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the Parliamentary Election
Act 1978 to allow elections to be postponed in certain circumstances:

Be it enacted by The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate and the House of Assembly of
Bermuda, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Short title
1 This Act may be cited as the Parliamentary Election Amendment
Act 1997.

Amendment of s 27 of Act No 23 of 1978
2 Subsections (4) and (5) of section 27 of the Parliamentary
Election Act 1978 ("the Act") are amended by inserting next after the
word "shall", where it appears for the second time in each subsection, the
words ", subject to section 27A,".

Insertion of new section 27A in Act
3 The following section is inserted in the Act next after
section 27—

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"Power to postpone elections
27A (1) Where at any time between the issue of a writ of
election and the polling day appointed by that writ the Governor
is satisfied that it is expedient so to do by reason of—

(a) Bermuda having become, or being likely to
become, engaged in any war; or

(b) a state of emergency having been proclaimed
under section 14(3) of the Constitution; or

(c) the occurrence of an earthquake, hurricane,
flood or fire, or the outbreak of a pestilence or an
infectious disease or other calamity whether
similar to the foregoing or not; or

(d) the likelihood that the voters´ list will not be
available before the polling day; or

(e) the occurrence of rioting, open violence or other
civil disturbance which has caused, or is likely
to cause, such interruption or abandonment of
the electoral process as to prejudice the holding
of a fair election,

he may by proclamation published in the Gazette cancel the
polling day appointed by the writ and appoint another day, not
being more than thirty days after that day (but subject in any
event to the limits set forth in section 51(1) and (2) of the
Constitution), to be the polling day instead.

(2) A proclamation under this section made by virtue of
paragraph (c), (d) or (e) of subsection (1) may be expressed to
apply to all the constituencies of Bermuda, or to one or more of
those constituencies specified in the proclamation; and, where
such a proclamation is expressed to apply to a particular
constituency or to particular constituencies, the proclamation
shall not affect any appointment of a polling day, or the
operation of this Act as respects any such appointment, in
relation to any other constituency.

(3) The writ of election relating to a constituency to
which a proclamation made under this section applies shall be
deemed to have been amended by substituting the polling day
appointed by the proclamation for the polling day appointed by
that writ.

(4) Where a proclamation under this section is made
before the day appointed by the writ of election in question as

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the nomination day, the nomination day shall be deemed
postponed until the fourteenth day next preceding the polling
day appointed by the proclamation.

(5) Where a proclamation under this section is made
after the day appointed by the writ of election in question as the
nomination day, the postponement by the proclamation of the
polling day shall not affect any nomination that was made on
nomination day, and no further nomination may be made.

(6) Where the polling day or the nomination day
appointed by a writ of election ("the original day") is postponed
by virtue of this section to another day ("the substitute day"), any
reference in this Act or in any Rules made under this Act to the
original day shall, if the context so requires, be construed as a
reference to the substitute day and not the original day.

(7) Where the polling day appointed by a writ of
election is postponed by a proclamation by virtue of this section,
the Governor may by that proclamation or by a later
proclamation published in the Gazette if, in his opinion, the
election room appointed by the writ ("the original election room")
will not be available for the purposes of the election, appoint
another election room (a "substitute election room") for those
purposes instead; and, where a substitute election room has
been so appointed, any reference in this Act or in any Rules
made under this Act to the original election room shall, if the
context so requires, be construed as a reference to the substitute
election room and not the original election room.".