Electoral Commission Emergency Plans

05 August 2014 News items

The Electoral Commission has prepared the following paper, Plans for Managing Adjournment of Polling in an Emergency, which outlines the measures that the Electoral Commission would take should a significant emergency occur in the lead-up to or on polling day for the 2014 general election.

In an emergency, voting in affected areas would be adjourned until it was safe to resume. Polling elsewhere would proceed, and preliminary results would be released on election night for those areas where voting had been unaffected. The election would be completed, including the return of the writ and the election of successful list candidates, once voting had resumed and been completed in those areas affected.

There is a long-standing provision in the Electoral Act for such events, but it has never been invoked.

While the Electoral Commission hopes this planning will not be required, it is important that ministers, political parties and candidates, and the public are aware of the processes in place to manage the conduct of the election in case of a major emergency.

A copy of the paper is attached.
emergency_plans_paper_2014.pdf

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