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Nicholson

The Electoral Commission has denied that it had made a recommendation imposing mandatory sentencing for persons who participate in open voting during elections.

In fact the recommendation came from the Chief Parliamentary Counsel.

Attorney-General and Leader of Government Business in the Senate, A.J. Nicholson, made the disclosure yesterday, while reading from a report to Parliament from the Electoral Commission, which was tabled in the Senate.

"In a way you and others were taken wide, really outside the off stump, because in truth, what they are saying in this report, they themselves the commission, did not recommend the penalty," Nicholson said. "So if you had known that, the question of convention would not have arisen."

Concerns raised

When the Senate amended sections of the election bills last month, concerns were raised about the Parliament moving away from the convention of not adjusting recommendations from the electoral body.

Senator Nicholson sought to set the record straight while welcoming the passage of the three election bills in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, which now paves the way for sanctions to be imposed on persons who display their ballots in an election.

Senator Nicholson said many persons were misled into thinking that the commission had made the recommendation.

"In fact, even some of the journalists were taken wide," he pointed out. "Because everyone was labouring under the impression that the commission had recommended the penalty, but it was not so."

"Look how many bills we have had that come before us and have gone through that same route and when it comes to us, we amend," he said in justifying the Senate's action. "We are glad that it has come out that way."