Individual members of the public will not be precluded from making telephone calls to the Electoral Office on Election Day to report incidents on which the Constituted Authority may act to halt elections.

However, "we don't want people to clog up the telephones with frivolous calls", a member of the Authority, Corrine McLarty said, adding that such calls could be traced and those responsible prosecuted for creating public mischief. "Election Day is not a holiday for crime, so if you break the law you'll be prosecuted", she said.

Members of the Authority, the body empowered to halt an election in a polling division or constituency affected by violence, will meet at the electoral office to receive reports.

The five-member Authority will primarily be depending on information from Returning Officers, electoral supervisors and other electoral officials to make a determination on whether to halt an election.

However, Mrs. McLarty, in a telephone conversation with The Gleaner yesterday, said, "I would not preclude any member of the public from calling the Electoral Office with information."

She explained that there might be instances, for example, where a presiding officer does not turn up at a polling station for one reason or another, and the station might remain closed for several hours. In such a scenario, she said, it would seem reasonable for members of the public to make that information available to the Electoral Office.

However, Mrs. McLarty said verification of the accuracy of such information would be made through Returning Officers, the police and other personnel who would be linked to a central communication system.

And Mrs. McLarty said the chairman of the Constituted Authority, Mr. Justice O.D. Marsh, had written to each party pointing out the role of the Authority and what was required of them under the Act to Amend the Representation of the People's Act and the Act to Amend the Elections Petition Act.

The amendments provide for an election in a constituency to be stopped if polling stations have not opened within the first five hours after the hour fixed for the opening of the poll, and the number of electors on the official list in those polling stations constitute 25 per cent or more of the electors in that constituency.

Elections can also be halted if there is an earthquake, flood, fire or other natural disasters which would substantially prejudice the holding of fair elections.

Provision is also made for the taking of the poll within 28 days of the halting of it, or as soon as possible as the Constituted Authority may deem practicable.

After an election, the Constituted Authority may, on its own or at the request of a candidate, make an application to the Election Court, under the Election Petitions Act, to void a poll. While the matter is being heard, the candidate declared elected has a right to sit as a Member of Parliament.

Amendments to the Election Petitions Act provide for an election to be voided where the total number of votes cast in a constituency exceeds the number of electors on the official list for that constituency.

It shall also be declared void where ballot boxes have been stolen, destroyed or tampered with, and the number of electors on the list of electors for the polling division is more than the difference in the number of votes cast for the candidate declared the winner, and the candidate who is not declared the winner.