Project discussion: Remove Electoral Prosecution Limits
Electoral (Prosecution Limits Repeal) Amendment Bill
Member's Bill
Explanatory Note
An Act to remove the time limit for prosecution of future offenses under part 7 of the Electoral Act, and certain sections of the Electoral Finance Act.
Electoral (Prosecution Limits Repeal) Amendment Bill
The Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows:
1. Title
This Act is the Electoral (Prosecution Limits Repeal) Amendment Act 2009.
2. Commencement
This Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.
3. Purpose
The purpose of this Act is to repeal time limits for prosecutions for future offenses under the Electoral Act 1993, and under the Electoral Finance Act 2007.
4. Principal Act Amended
This Act amends the Electoral Act 1993.
5. Sections Repealed
- Section 226 of the principle Act is hereby repealed.
- Section 140 of the Electoral Finance Act 2007 is hereby repealed.
6. Previous Offenses
No person shall be liable to be convicted of an offence committed under Part 7 of the principle act, or sections 48(1), 48(2), 56(1), 61(1), 88(1), 109(1) and 130(1) of the Electoral Finance Act 2007, provided that no prosecution has yet been commenced, at least six months have passed since the offence was committed, and that the offense was committed prior to the commencement of this Act.
I think 6 is too broad, because the existing rule is commencement of prosecution, not actual conviction. So the current drafting will extinguish any cases in which a prosecution was commenced within 6 months but had not yet completed. Such a case may well not exist, but you definitely wouldn't want to extinguish it.
Good catch. Fixed.
For tidiness, s5(2) should be in a seperate clause, as it amends a different act. But apart from that, its probably unnecessary, given that the government is repealing the whole of the EFA (so we'll need to find the new clause their Electoral Amendment Bill inserts into the Electoral Act).
I actually had this one lying around, that's why it applies to the old regime. I've skimmed the Electoral Amendment Act, and I'm pretty sure this idea will still apply to it, and therefore probably to whatever election law they propose when they get around to actually instituting their new one.
In electoral laws at the moment, there are some offences with 6 month time-limits and other offences with three year time-limits. This bill will remove time limits from the electoral legislation, but this will not mean that there are no time limits, it will instead mean that the default time limits contained in the Crimes Act, or the Summary Proceedings Act will apply. Someone may wish to factor this into the drafting because the time-limit under the Summary Proceedings Act is six months.
Thanks Graeme. I found the time limit for summary proceedings, and I'll check the Crimes Act again.
The only default I've found in the Crimes Act thus far is the ten-year limit at the beginning. Is it even worth making an exception for that?
I've yet to see a three-year limit.