ELECTORAL ACT ____________________________________________________________________________________ 83 Conduct of chief election agents, election agents, monitors 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. [Subsection as amended by s. 87 of Act No. 17 of 2007] (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. [Subsection as amended by s. 87 of Act No. 17 of 2007] (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 or observer concerned from any polling station or constituency centre. [Subsection as amended by s. 87 of Act No. 17 of 2007 and s. 48 of Act No. 6 of 2014] 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 [Paragraph inserted by s. 54 of Act No. 17 of 2007] (a) at the sealing or opening of the ballot boxes in terms of subsection (4) of section fiftyfour; 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— (a) forges or counterfeits or fraudulently destroys a ballot paper or the official mark on a ballot paper; or (a1) at a polling station, applies for a ballot paper, knowing that he or she is not entitled to vote in the ward or constituency concerned; or [Paragraph inserted by s. 55 of Act No. 17 of 2007] (b) without due authority supplies any ballot paper to any person; or (c) without due authority puts into a ballot box any paper or thing other than the ballot paper which he or she is authorised by this Act to put in the ballot box; or (d) without due authority takes out of the polling station a ballot paper; or (e) without due authority destroys, takes, opens or otherwise interferes with a ballot box or packet of ballot papers then in use for the purposes of the election; shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years. (2) In an indictment, summons or charge for an offence in relation to ballot boxes, ballot papers or official marking instruments at an election, the property in such papers, boxes or instruments, as well as the property in the counterfoils, may be stated to be vested in the constituency elections officer at such election or, if the constituency elections officer is indicted or charged, in the Chief Elections Officer. 94