Preventing undue influence

There has been an expansion on the offence of undue influence scheduled to come into force on 1 November 2023.

  1. A person will be guilty of a corrupt practice if guilty of undue influence.
  2. A person will be guilty of undue influence if that person carries out an activity listed below in paragraph 4 for the purpose of
    • inducing or compelling a person to vote in a particular way or to refrain from voting, or
    • otherwise impeding or preventing the free exercise of the franchise of an elector or of a proxy for an elector.
  3. A person is also guilty of undue influence if that person carries out an activity falling within any of the activities listed from (a) to (f) on account of
    • a person having voted in a particular way or refrained from voting, or
    • assuming a person to have voted in a particular way or to have refrained from voting
  4. The activities are as follows
    1. using or threatening to use violence against a person.
    2. damaging or destroying, or threatening to damage or destroy, a person’s property.
    3. damaging or threatening to damage a person’s reputation.
    4. causing or threatening to cause financial loss to a person.
    5. causing spiritual injury to, or placing undue spiritual pressure on, a person.
    6. doing any other act designed to intimidate a person.
    7. doing any act designed to deceive a person in relation to the administration of an election.
  5. For the purposes of (2) and (3) above an activity is carried out if it is
    1. by that person
    2. by that person jointly with one or more other persons, or
    3. by one or more other persons on behalf of that person, with that person’s authority or consent.

In 4.f. & 4.g. above, “act” includes an omission (and references to the doing of an act are to be read accordingly).

Contacts

 01246 242424
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