Section 34: Disqualifications for membership

34. Disqualifications for membership (1) No person shall be qualified to be elected as a member of the Assembly who— (a) is, by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a power or State outside the Commonwealth; (b) is a public officer or a local government officer; (c) is a party to, or a partner in a firm or a director or manager of a company which is a party to, any contract with the Government for or on account of the public service, and has not, within 14 days after his nomination as a candidate for election, published in the English language in the Gazette and in a newspaper circulating in the constituency for which he is a candidate, a notice setting out the nature of such contract and his interest, or the interest of any such firm or company, therein; (d) has been adjudged or otherwise declared bankrupt under any law in force in any part of the Commonwealth and has not been discharged or has obtained the benefit of a cessio bonorum in Mauritius; (e) is a person adjudged to be of unsound mind or detained as a criminal lunatic under any law in force in Mauritius; (f) is under sentence of death imposed on him by a Court in any part of the Commonwealth, or is serving a sentence of imprisonment (by whatever name called) exceeding 12 months imposed on him by such a Court or substituted by competent authority for some other sentence imposed on him by such a Court, or is under such a sentence of imprisonment the execution of which has been suspended; (g) is disqualified for election by any law in force in Mauritius by reason of his holding, or acting in, an office the functions of which involve— (i) any responsibility for, or in connection with, the conduct of any election; or (ii) any responsibility for the compilation or revision of any electoral register; or (h) is disqualified for membership of the Assembly by any law in force in Mauritius relating to offences connected with elections. (2) Where it is prescribed by Parliament that any office in the public service or the service of a local authority is not to be regarded as such an office for the purposes of this section, a person shall not be regarded for the purposes of this section as a public officer or a local government officer, as the case may be, by reason only that he holds, or is acting in, that office. CON – 33 [Issue 1] The Constitution (3) For the purpose of this section— (a) 2 or more terms of imprisonment that are required to be served consecutively shall be regarded as a single term of imprisonment for the aggregate period of those terms; and (b) imprisonment in default of payment of a fine shall be disregarded.