Rules and Schedule of the Somaliland Forum Executive Committee Election

2.0 ELECTION SCHEDULE

2.1 Election Timetable

March 06 – March 13: Executive Committee announces election schedule, posts election procedures/ guidelines and starts soliciting for individuals volunteers to form a temporary ‘Electoral Commission’.

March 07 – March 13: Treasurer submits a list of forum members in good standing.

March 14 – March 14: Electoral Commission volunteers are officially announced. Treasurer forwards the list of members in good standing to the Electoral Commission.

March 15: The Election Commission posts the list of all members in good standing to the Forum.

March 16 – March 29: Forum members commence nominating candidates of their own choosing.

March 16 – March 29: Electoral Commission simultaneously solicits for additional potential candidates in private.

March 30 – April 13: Voting commences on March 30th and ends on April 13th 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Any vote cast after the voting deadline has passed will not be counted.

April 14 – April 15: Election results announced.

April 16 – April 30: Transitional period.

May 01: New executive committee officially assumes duty.

2.2 Voting Period

2.2.1 During the voting period, forum members should not make any comments about the candidates. Only news items, educational topics and urgent announcements may be posted to the forum floor during this period. Any member who makes any comments about the election process would face sanctions by the Executive Committee.

2.2.2 Any member who has a legitimate complaint about the process, must submit an official complain directly/in private to the Executive Committee.

3.0 NOMINATION PROCESS

 

3.1 Nominee Qualifications 

3.1.1 To be nominated, a candidate must be a member in “good standing” at the time of the election as defined by the Forum bylaws and must comply with bylaws requirements for an EC member.

3.1.2 A candidate must have made positive contributions to Forum causes in the form of service in subcommittee assignments or participation in projects and must have demonstrated good teamwork capabilities.

3.1.3 A nominee must have been a member in the Forum for at least six months.

3.1.4 Gender and geographic representation shall be given due consideration but will not be a strict requirement or a pre-requisite for nomination.

3.1.5 Members of the Electoral Commission are NOT eligible for nomination.

3.2 Nomination Procedure

3.2.1 Any member in good standing can nominate himself/herself or any other qualified member to any EC position of their choice.

3.2.2 The nominating member must obtain prior consent from the nominee that he/she will run for election and that he/she will not decline the nomination. “Wild” nominations shall NOT be accepted.

3.2.3 The Electoral Commission shall simultaneously solicit nominees from potential qualified members in private.

3.2.4 A minimum of two candidates shall be nominated for each executive committee position.

3.2.5 In the event that only one candidate is found for an EC position, that candidate can be considered to run unopposed after all efforts to find a second candidate are exhausted.

3.2.6 Each candidate shall be asked to specify and choose the position he/she wants to run for.

3.2.7 If a candidate is nominated for multiple positions, the candidate shall be asked to specify/choose to run for only one position of his/her own liking.

3.2.8 If a nominee for any position is found by the Electoral Commission not to meet the good standing qualification then the Electoral Commission shall inform in private the nominating member that his nominee is not in good standing according to the forum records as provided by the treasurer.

 

4.0 VOTING PROCEDURE

4.1 Voting Eligibility

4.1.1 Any forum member in good standing is eligible to vote.

4.1.2 Electoral Commission members will not exercise their right to vote.

4.2 Vote Validation Standards

4.2.1 A voter shall include his/her full name; city and country of residence with his/her vote.  Any ballots not showing the above information will be rejected.

4.2.2 Any vote that does not match the position a candidate is running for against the name of the candidate shall not be counted. In other words voters shall not cast their vote for a position not selected by their candidate of choice.

4.2.3 Partially correct portions of a ballot shall be counted. These are the votes where the candidate and position match correctly.

4.2.4 If a member re-casts his/her votes to correct a mistake, then the second set of votes will be counted and his/her initial vote shall be discarded. Members will be allowed to re-cast votes only ONCE. However, members MAY NOT re-cast their vote to change candidates.

4.2.5 The Electoral Commission shall not notify any voter whether his/her vote is complete or incomplete at any time during the voting period.

 

5.0 RESULTS OF THE ELECTION

5.1 The Electoral Commission shall announce the election results as soon as the voting concludes.

5.2 The results shall include such details as the total number of votes, disqualified ballots and the total votes cast for each EC position as well as for each candidate.

5.3 In the event that two or more candidates receive equal number of votes for the same position, a run-off ballot shall be conducted for 3 additional days for these candidates to break the tie.

5.4 In the event two candidates tie again in a second run-off, the Electoral Commission shall ask one of the candidates to voluntarily withdraw his candidacy for the position in contention.

 

6.0 TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

6.1 During the transitional period, the outgoing executive committee shall make all Forum decisions.

 

7.0 COMPLIANCE WITH ELECTION GUIDELINES

7.1 In the event that the Electoral Commission fails to substantially comply with the election guidelines, the sitting committee shall take any actions deemed necessary to rectify the election process.