ELECTORAL ACT (as amended at 24th January 2008) PART XV GENERAL PROVISIONS RELATING TO POLLS 82 Constituency elections officers and other persons to make declaration of secrecy Every electoral officer, candidate or agent of a candidate authorised to attend at the counting or collating of votes at a polling station or constituency centre shall, before the opening of the poll, make a declaration of secrecy— (a) if he or she is a constituency elections officer or a presiding officer, before a commissioner of oaths; or (b) in any other case, before a commissioner of oaths or the constituency elections officer or the presiding officer. 83 Conduct of chief election agents, election agents and observers at elections (1) Every chief election agent, election agent and observer appointed or accredited for the purpose of any election shall be bound by the code of conduct set out in the First Schedule. (2) Any chief election agent, election agent or observer who contravenes any provision of the code of conduct set out in the First Schedule shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level fourteen or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment. (3) Additionally or alternatively to any prosecution for an offence in terms of subsection (2), the contravention by a chief election agent, election agent or observer of any provision of the code of conduct set out in the First Schedule shall, notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, constitute grounds for an electoral officer to exclude the election agent, polling agent or observer concerned from any polling station or constituency centre. 84 Absence of election agents, etc. at opening and closing of ballot boxes, etc. For the avoidance of doubt it is declared that the failure by any person (other than an electoral officer) entitled in terms of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section fifty-five to be present on time⎯ (1a) at the counting and recording of the total number of ballot papers received at a polling station in terms of section 54A; or (a) at the sealing or opening of the ballot boxes in terms of subsection (4) of section fifty-four; or (b) at the sealing of the ballot boxes in terms of paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of section sixty-one or of the packets referred to in paragraph (b) of that subsection; or (c) at the counting of votes in terms of section sixty-two; shall not prevent the electoral officer concerned from proceeding in the absence of any such person. 85 Offences in relation to ballot papers and ballot boxes (1) Any person who— - 62 -