Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2026 (Bill No. 29 of 2026)

This legislative submission by the Centre for Democracy & Dialogue (CDD) assesses the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2026 (Bill No. 29 of 2026) against principles of legal certainty, political neutrality, proportionality, accessibility, transparency, electoral integrity, voter autonomy and ballot secrecy. CDD supports several reforms in the Bill, including repeal of unusually broad information-gathering powers and efforts to rationalise the offence regime, while recommending substantial amendment of provisions concerning party-provided transport and refreshments, the polling-place protected zone, the 48-hour campaign silence period, provisional-results publication, ballot accounting, civil-society participation and electoral offences. The submission also identifies drafting weaknesses and priority reforms not addressed by the Bill, drawing on comparative practice and recommendations of the Multinational Observer Group.