Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Electoral Act 1993

Election petitions - Trial of election petition

238: Avoidance of election for general corruption

You could also call this:

"If bad things happen in an election and change the result, the winner might lose their seat."

Illustration for Electoral Act 1993

If you are involved in an election petition trial, the High Court might find that some bad or illegal things happened during the election. The court will look at whether these things happened so much that they probably changed the election result. If they did, and the person who won the election is the one being questioned, their win will be cancelled.

You should know that an election can only be cancelled for this reason if the court says so under this specific rule. Normally, an election will not be cancelled just because some bad or illegal things happened during it. The court has to decide if these things affected the result of the election.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM310441.

Topics:
Government and voting > Elections
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Part 8Election petitions
Trial of election petition

238Avoidance of election for general corruption

  1. Where it is reported by the High Court on the trial of an election petition that corrupt or illegal practices committed in relation to the election for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election of any constituency candidate or constituency candidates thereat have so extensively prevailed that they may be reasonably supposed to have affected the result, the constituency candidate’s election, if the candidate has been elected and is a respondent, shall be void.

  2. Except under this section, an election shall not be liable to be avoided by reason of the general prevalence of corrupt or illegal practices.