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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Electoral Act 1993

Election expenses, donations, and annual financial statements - Election expenses of candidates

205B: Offence to incur unauthorised election expense

You could also call this:

"Breaking election expense rules can get you in trouble"

Illustration for Electoral Act 1993

If you break the rules about election expenses, you can get in trouble. You will be guilty of a corrupt practice if you deliberately do not follow the rules in section 205A. You will be guilty of an illegal practice if you accidentally do not follow the rules in section 205A.

If you do something wrong, it can be either a corrupt practice or an illegal practice. A corrupt practice is when you deliberately do something wrong. An illegal practice is when you do something wrong by accident.

You have to follow the rules so you do not get in trouble for a corrupt or illegal practice. The rules are in place to make sure elections are fair. You can look at section 205A to see what the rules are.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1867444.

Topics:
Government and voting > Elections
Previous

205A: Persons who may incur election expenses in relation to candidate advertisement, or

"Who can pay for ads to help a candidate get elected?"

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205C: Maximum amount of candidate's total election expenses, or

"How much money a candidate can spend on their election campaign"

Part 6AElection expenses, donations, and annual financial statements
Election expenses of candidates

205BOffence to incur unauthorised election expense

  1. Every person is guilty of—

  2. a corrupt practice who wilfully contravenes section 205A; and
    1. an illegal practice who contravenes section 205A in any other case.

      Compare
      Notes
      • Section 205B: substituted, on , by section 8 of the Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Act 2010 (2010 No 137).