WALLIS AJ did not obtain addresses or information from voters that would enable it to perform this statutory obligation. On what basis then were these voters registered? And a similar proportion was registered in the wrong voting district, although in the correct wards. Was this purely fortuitous? We cannot tell. All that can be said is that an election conducted when there is a serious question as to the reliability of the voters’ roll cannot be described as free and fair. [93] In the case of the December by-elections that conclusion is compounded by the late delivery of the relevant segments of the voters’ roll and the absence of addresses on those segments. (Whilst not the subject of an express complaint in the affidavits it must also have been the case that in the September by-election the segment of the voters’ roll provided to Mr Kham lacked addresses). As to the former there is no explanation at all. As to the latter the IEC’s approach, on the basis of a regulation that it had promulgated, was that it was under no obligation to do more. That would arguably be wrong even in the absence of an express provision such as section 16(3) of the Electoral Act. [94] I can see force in the contention that in order for an election to be fairly conducted it is necessary that the participants have available to them not simply a list of voters’ names and identity numbers but also some means of identifying and contacting them, of which the voters’ addresses is the most obvious.70 But it is unnecessary in the light of section 16(3) to reach a firm conclusion on this question and I would hesitate to do so without further enquiry into the electoral systems of other democratic countries and the requirements for the preparation of voters’ rolls there. Here, the IEC was in breach of its obligations under section 16(3) of the Electoral Act in not furnishing segments of the voters’ roll with addresses where those were available. That failure was compounded by its failure, in breach of the requirements of section 11(3) of the Municipal Electoral Act, to make the segments of the voters’ roll available to certified candidates in accordance with the provisions of 70 Sawer above n 68 at 153. 48