Agents must be sworn before polls open

(CNS): The Elections Office is issuing a reminder that candidates' agents must be sworn in before the polls open on Wednesday and at the correct polling station, otherwise they will not be allowed to enter any polling or counting stations. Officials from the office said agents will only be sworn in at their assigned stations where their identification badges have been delivered and, as a result of the large numbers of agents appointed, they must be at their respective polling stations by no later than 6:00am. Candidates must advise the Elections Office by 5pm Tuesday 21 May which stations their elections agents will be attending so identification badges can be sent to the stations for collection.

"Elections Office staff have had to work for an inordinate period over the past week and throughout the weekend in order to bring some semblance of order to the many appointment of agents applications, many of which were incomplete,” the election office stated in a release. 

“Returning officers urged candidates from Nomination Day to appoint their agents early in order to avoid just such a situation arising. It should be noted that any agent appointed who has completed an application for a postal ballot or mobile voting on behalf of an elector or witnessed an electors signature on such forms is guilty of an offence,” the officials warned

The office said that this also applies to candidates and the votes of any person whose postal ballot was witnessed by someone who is now an agent will be rejected. “This is another reason why returning officers and the Elections Office urged candidates to appoint agents early,” the office noted.