How epi works – Committee Elections
A. Neves, T. Marx, A. K. Pedersen
This is the election procedure in a nutshell.
From here, we will go into all this in more detail step by step.
The epi Council must set up a Disciplinary Committee and has the power to set up Other Committees which have shown over the years to be crucial for the work of our organisation. For this (and any other) election to work, first candidates must be nominated. Once the nomination is complete, Council members can vote for the candidates of their choice.
The “mechanism” of the election has now become a purely online voting process. This may be of special interest for those involved in former elections. But in principle, this does not change anything.
Okay, but what do we mean by…
Other Committees?
Practically all the substantive work of epi is done by the committees. It is therefore not really surprising that there are quite a few of them.
Nominations and elections?
Unlike in many popular reality shows, here the candidates nominate themselves. They are then elected by the Council members.
Everything has to take place within established time frames. We will explain the rules later.
Online voting?
Any Full or Substitute member of the epi Council will receive an invitation to the online voting tool. They are then invited to vote for the candidates of their choice within the established time frame.
This means that (unlike in the past) the Committee elections will no longer take place during the Autumn Council meeting.
Other Committees - who votes for whom?
Every full and substitute member of the epi Council will be notified and can vote for all Committees. However, among the full/substitute members of each constituency, only one vote will be counted.
The number/nationality, etc. of candidates who can be elected depends on how the different Committees are organised. According to these rules, voters can make their individual choice or follow the recommendations made by their constituency’s Council member or by (Deputy) Auditors and Committee Chairs.
Only one vote will be counted?
Exactly. When a Full Member casts their vote, it is this vote that counts.
Unless a full member has previously delegated their vote to one of their constituency’s Substitute Member. In this case, the designated Substitute Member’s vote is the one that counts.
It may also be that the full member has not voted and not delegated the vote to anyone. In that case, the vote that counts is that of the Substitute Member who received the most votes in the Council elections.
See CoD, section 3.3.4, Rule 2 (Voting Procedure).
How are the Committees made up?
For each Committee, there are specific rules according to which it has to be composed. These rules establish a minimum and maximum number of members - as well as requirements which must (not) be fulfilled.
For example:
The Professional Education Committee (PEC) consists of a maximum of one full member and one substitute member for each Member State, none of whom shall be a member of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal, Supervisory Board or Examination Board.
See section 3.3.2 of the CoD (Terms of Reference of the Committees).
Recommended candidates?
Council members, either individually or as a constituency, Auditors, Deputy Auditors and Committee Chairs including the Chair of the Disciplinary Committee, are encouraged to present to the Secretariat their preferred candidate for the respective vacancy.
Any such preference will be published next to the candidate’s name in the list of nominations.
See CoD, section 3.3.4
Nomination and Voting
Nomination for the Committees starts 2 weeks after the Spring Council and ends 9 weeks before the Autumn Council. One week later, the final list of candidates will be available.
The election starts six weeks before the Autumn Council and will last 10 days. The results of the elections will be declared by the Committees Elections Committee - and published no later than 3 weeks before the Autumn Council.
Nomination?
Any epi member can declare, by submitting a completed nomination form, that they are candidate for (re-)election and shall accept the election if elected.
If a member is interested in being a candidate for Committees Election, they should access and fill in the internet-based nomination form via their member-account on the epi website during the period the nomination window is open.
For the 2023 General Committee Election that means on or after 17.05.2023 and before or on 11.09.2023.
Note that candidates will be required to fill out individual nomination forms for each relevant Committee that they wish to stand for election to. These nomination forms also point out the eligibility criteria for each Committee. The CEC checks the nominations for conformity with the applicable rules. A final list candidates is published before or on the 18.09.2023. Individuals or constituencies can indicate a candidate they prefer at the latest until 26.09.2023
Elections?
All Council members will receive a voting link from the Secretariat at the beginning of the General election. On 02.10.2023 the election starts. Only votes received by the system within the 10 calendar days voting window will be eligible to be counted.
Council members can validly vote for a number of candidates corresponding to the number of available seats in the respective Committee. The number of votes received by each candidate determines, subject to validation, whether that candidate is elected, either as a full member or as a substitute member, if applicable.
Note that some Committees have national quota and/or require specific candidate qualifications.
The number of votes received by each candidate determines whether, after the validation of the election by the Council, that candidate is elected, either as a full member or as a substitute member, if applicable.
Validation and publication?
Once the voting procedure is closed, the Committees Elections Committee
- supervises conformity with the applicable Rules (and if so)
- declares the results of the votes and
- prepares a written report to the Council for validation.
No later than 3 weeks before the autumn Council meeting of the election year, the Secretariat publishes the results of the votes, indicating the number of votes received for each candidate (and the result of any drawing of lots carried out by the CEC, if applicable).
For the 2023 election, the publication of the results will take place no later than 23.10.2023.
In the event of any objection to the result of the votes for the General elections by a member of the Institute, a written objection by email, including a reasoned statement, must be submitted to the Secretariat no later than one week after the publication of the results.
For the 2023 election, objections must reach the Secretariat no later than 30/10/2023.
The procedure for handling objections is laid out and further described in Rule 11.1 of the Rules for Committee elections.
At the autumn Council meeting of the election year, the Council shall validate the results of the votes of the General elections.
Online Procedure
In the past, members and substitute members of Committees were appointed by Council at the autumn Council meeting of each election year using a paper-based nomination and voting procedure.
The latest amendments to the Rules for Committee elections included a change to an internet based nomination and voting procedure. Hence, the elections do not have to be realised during a Council meeting and will be carried out using a specific voting tool. All epi members can follow the nomination process via the epi website in the member-only area of the website, where the list of nominees will be continuously updated.
Paper-based process?
Compared to an electronic process, voting on paper is cumbersome, time-consuming and potentially error-prone.
By switching to an electronic procedure, the voting process becomes faster and independent of council meetings. This also saves valuable time that can be used for important discussions and decisions.
Voting tool?
While the nomination of candidates takes place in the members’ area of the epi website, the elections are conducted using a special online voting tool.
As mentioned earlier, the composition of each committee is specific (e.g. in terms of minimum/maximum number of members, applicable national quota, etc.). The voting tool will guide you through the relevant choices; however, voters are also always encouraged to consider the applicable criteria in their decision.
Votes are counted manually after the election.
More information on the voting tool and its use will follow in due course.
epi members?
Members are informed that in order to create an epi member account and be able to submit one or more nomination forms, a valid email-address is needed. Members who do not already have an epi account are strongly encouraged to create an account.
Overview deadlines:
We would like to inform you about the following deadlines:
Nomination phase, all epi members may nominate themselves.
- Wednesday, 17 May 2023 Opening of the Nomination process
- Monday, 11 September 2023 Closing of the Nomination process
- Monday, 18 September 2023 Publication of final list of candidates for election
Election phase, all Council members are entitled to vote.
- Tuesday, 26 September 2023, at the latest, Indication of preferred candidate (individuals or constituencies can indicate a candidate they prefer)
- Monday, 02 October 2023 Start of online voting
- Wednesday, 11 October 2023 Closure of voting
- Monday, 23 October 2023 Publication of results
Objections
- Monday, 30 October 2023 Deadline for objections
Validation at autumn Council meeting
- Tuesday, 31 October 2023 Publication of 2nd accumulated file
- Saturday, 11 November 2023 C95 - Validation of the results of the election
