Apparently, the statistical reports on by-elections held since 2003 have been submitted as required by law, contrary to earlier reports.
The financial reports are another story.
Your humble e-scribbler fired off an e-mail to both the House of Assembly and the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer a couple of weeks ago before labradore posted on the apparent absence of statistical reports on recent elections required by law and after a Polemic and Paradox post on election financing. The response from both offices came back within 24 hours.
Bond Papers erroneously commented on the absence of the stats reports.
The details on the statistical reports are in the table below. All reports are available through the legislative library at the House of Assembly.
|
Election
|
Date received by House of Assembly |
|
Placentia and St. Mary's |
31 August 2006 |
|
Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi |
17 April 2007 |
| | |
| | |
No word on the report for the Labrador West by-election but your humble e-scribbler will check that out. Odds are the thing has been received given that the by-election took place in early 2007.
The general election report is now available online. No indication if the elections office made the nine month deadline or were off by a couple of days. The general election was held on October 9, 2007.
Eight candidates miss financial deadlines
In the official response to the e-mail, the elections office noted that a change to the elections law in 2007 gave candidates a four month deadline to submit details of their election financing for the general election. Before that, the time period was six months.
There is no statutory deadline on when the elections office must report on the financing, but here the hang ups are not entirely the fault of the elections office.
The Labrador Party candidate from the Labrador West by-election had still not filed his return as of July 11, 2008. The by-election was held on March 13, 2007.
As of July 11, 2008, returns had also not been received from seven candidates in last October's general election. These were the New Democratic Party candidates in Terra Nova, Lewisporte and Virginia Waters and the Liberal candidates in Port au Port, Lewisporte and The Straits and White Bay North.
The elections office intends to file an omnibus financial report this fall on the by-elections and general election.
Under section 330 of the Elections Act, 1991 willful or negligent failure to meet the financial filing deadline could make a candidate's chief financial officer liable to a fine of up to $50 for each day past the deadline before the report is received.
There was no indication of whether the elections office will assess the penalties under s. 330 against any of the candidates who have missed the deadline for filing.
-srbp-