ELECTORAL ACT (as amended at 24th January 2008) (a) before marking the ballot paper the voter shall produce before a competent witness— (i) the ballot paper issued to him or her showing the number thereon; and (ii) the declaration of identity; and (iii) the envelope in which he or she has received the ballot paper; (b) the voter shall sign the declaration of identity in the presence of the competent witness who shall, if satisfied as to the identity of the voter, sign the declaration of identity in his or her own handwriting and add the title under which he or she acts as a competent witness; (c) the voter shall signify the candidate for whom he or she wishes to vote by secretly placing on the ballot paper a cross in accordance with subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (c) of section fifty-seven, and no other person except the competent witness shall be present and the voter shall not allow the competent witness to see how he or she has voted; (d) immediately after voting the voter shall, in the presence of the competent witness but without disclosing how he or she has voted, place the marked ballot paper in the ballot paper envelope, effectively close that envelope and place it, together with the declaration of identity, in the covering envelope and effectively close the covering envelope; (e) the voter shall then dispatch the covering envelope by registered post without delay, or hand it to the constituency elections officer who, when it is so handed to him or her, shall issue a receipt for it: Provided that— (i) the failure to register any such envelope shall not invalidate the vote; (ii) where the voter is a member of a disciplined force and has received his or her ballot paper in the manner specified in the proviso to subsection (5) of section seventy-two, he or she may transmit the envelope to the constituency elections officer through his or her commanding officer and such commanding officer shall convey or cause to be conveyed the covering envelope to the returning officer by the most expeditious means consistent with safety; (iii) at the request in person of a voter who cannot read or write or who is incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause from voting in the manner provided in this subsection, the competent witness may mark the vote of the voter on the ballot paper in the manner directed by the voter. (2) Where a competent witness has been requested to mark a vote on a ballot paper in terms of proviso (iii) to subsection (1), he or she may put to the voter such questions as, in his or her opinion, are necessary to elicit sufficient directions to enable him or her to mark the vote in the manner desired by the voter. (3) A competent witness who has marked a vote on a ballot paper in terms of proviso (iii) to subsection (1) shall ensure that a written statement of what he or she has done and the reasons for his or her doing so, specifying the nature of the inability or incapacity suffered by - 57 -