There has been an expansion on the offence of undue influence that came into force on 1 November 2023.
- a person will be guilty of a corrupt practice if guilty of undue influence.
- 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.
- 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
- the activities are as follows
a) using or threatening to use violence against a person
b) damaging or destroying, or threatening to damage or destroy, a person’s property
c)damaging or threatening to damage a person’s reputation
d) causing or threatening to cause financial loss to a person
e) causing spiritual injury to, or placing undue spiritual pressure on, a person
f) doing any other act designed to intimidate a person
g) doing any act designed to deceive a person in relation to the administration of an election.
For the purposes of (2) and (3) above an activity is carried out if it is
- a) by that person
- b) by that person jointly with one or more other persons, or
- c) 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).