The outgoing International Committee (IC) is responsible for ensuring the regularity of the General Assembly and of the legality of the IC election.

The IC nominally designates the members of the “electoral commission” who are in charge of overseeing the actual voting process and casting of votes in the IC election. The designated members of this commission will be publicly nominated at the latest at the beginning of the General Assembly. The designated election officers are chosen from the Network members, or persons external to the Network, excluding any former IC members and candidates standing for election.

The commission is organised into one or several units of 4 people. The duties of the commission are to print ballot papers, check the validity of proxies, register electors at the venue entrance, and again during the actual voting process when each vote is cast in the ballot box, and to count the votes.

In this document LSPPCs as well as their regional and national networks are referred to as partnerships. « Partner organisations » are those organisations that are involved in actions that support them. Partnerships may cast two votes each (in principle: one producer, one consumer).

In the eventuality of it being impossible for a partnership to send more than one person to attend the General Assembly, this partnership is entitled to be represented by a single person. In this instance this person may cast both the votes on behalf of the partnership.

According to the Statutes and the Rules and Regulations of the Procedure of the General Assembly, some partner organisations may be granted the same rights to vote as the partnerships that are active members of the association “Urgenci International Network”. This entails making an official application to and a specific decision by the International Committee.

Those people entitled to cast their vote are the physical persons present in the General Assembly and taking part in the voting process, be it with one or several votes. Electors should fall into one of the following categories:

• a) A representative of a partnership.
• b) A representative of a partner organisation that has acquired the status of active membership.
• c) A person, who although not him/herself representing an active member, represents an affiliate member, and is in possession of one or several proxies held on behalf of active members that were unable to attend the General Assembly.

3.1 Registration, voting cards and ballot papers

On entering the room where the General Assembly is to be held, each elector is welcomed by election officers from the election commission, who first check that he/she is entitled to vote; this is done by checking that the organisation he/she is representing has indeed submitted a membership application form, (where his/her name should appear), and that membership subscription fees have been duly paid.

He/she then signs a registration form. She/he is finally given:

• A voting card, which she/he will hold up during the votes cast and counted by a show of hands.
• A ballot paper, listing of the names of the candidates standing for election to the IC, for the first round of the IC election process.
• A blank ballot paper for the second round of the election process.

3.2 Proxies
When he/she enters the room where the General Assembly will take place, each voter who is carrying proxy forms should hand the form(s) to the officers of the electoral commission, who subsequently check them by verifying for each of the represented partnerships that the membership application form and the membership subscription fees have been duly received.

The elector is then given the number of voting cards and ballot papers that correspond to the number of valid proxies that they hold, as well as his/her own voting card and his/her own ballot papers.

As stated in the Rules and Procedures of the General Assembly, the proxy forms will use the same model as the form available online on the Network website, here.

As stated in article 10 of the Statutes, the maximum number of proxies that may be held by any one person may not exceed the number of active members registered on the same region as the partnership she/he represents is registered. There are 7 regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Oceania, and South America.

4.1 Letter of intent
Each candidate is required to send her/his candidacy to the Urgenci General Secretary, either by mail or by electronic mail, including a letter of intent and a short biography. The candidates are requested to complete this process at least two weeks before the General Assembly. In order to encourage potential candidates to take this initiative, any candidacy file that meets these criteria the General Secretary will send them to all members by email. The General Secretary will also be in charge of printing and distributing the candidacy files during the General Assembly.

4.2 Deadline for submitting candidacies
The deadline for submitting candidacies is set at the end of the first day of the International Symposium (Feb. 20th 2009, 10 pm, Kobe time). Candidates who send/hand out their candidacy forms less than two weeks before the International Symposium, and before this deadline will have to prepare a written candidacy declaration form.

4.3 Presentation of candidates
All candidates will be given the opportunity to make a short presentation to the participants to the General Assembly just before the election is held.

5.1 Voting procedure
In accordance with the Statues, the General Assembly takes its ordinary decisions by a show of hands, with each person holding up the voting cards; this is in order to facilitate the counting of votes by the election officers. However, as the Network is striving to achieve rigour and transparency, the election to the International Committee will take place by a two-round system, using ballot papers placed in the ballot box.

5.2 Voting method for the election of the IC
In accordance with the Statutes and the Rules and Regulations of the General Assembly, the General Assembly elects five people to the International Committee. The three remaining IC members are subsequently co-opted by the 5 elected members.

At the end of the first round, candidates who have scored 50% or more of the valid votes (absolute majority) and scored the five highest numbers of votes are elected.

If the candidates who have been elected after the first round are fewer than 5, a second round is organized straight away, in order to fill the remaining seats. Following the second round, the candidates who polled most votes are considered elected to the remaining seats.

For the first round of the election, each elector has a ballot paper at their disposal, on which the names of all the candidates are printed. He/she crosses out the names of any candidates he/she would like to eliminate. The remaining number should not exceed 5. Any ballot papers with more than 5 names are considered invalid.

During the second round of the election, each elector uses a blank ballot sheet, on which they may write the names of their preferred candidates. The names on this list should not however outnumber the seats that have not yet been filled (otherwise, the ballot paper shall be considered invalid).

On completing the ballot paper, (and those of the members whose proxy he/she may hold), electors deposit them in the ballot box. There is one or several voters’ registration table(s) and one or more ballot box (es) where each member can deposit their ballot papers. This is done under the supervision of an election officer; another election officer is in charge of the registration, and notes the name of each person as they cast their vote/votes for which they hold a proxy. At the end of the voting process, the ballot box is opened. The ballot papers are then counted, in order to guarantee that this number is identical to the number of electors and proxies that have been registered. The votes for each candidate are then counted.

5.3 Vote counting during the Election to the IC
The counting is operated by one (or several) « units » of 4 people. It takes place publicly, and may be observed by any people wishing to do so.

During the first round of the election: one election officer calls out the names (no more than five) that remain on the ballot paper. He/she then passes the ballot paper to a second person who repeats the names. The ballot paper is then passed to a third election officer. This third person is responsible for counting the ballot papers. She/he then places the ballot papers into an envelope. A fourth person notes the number of votes cast for each candidate.

During the second round, the same process is repeated, with the number of names corresponding to the number of seats still to be filled through the election process.