The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7246 p567
26 April 2003

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Private-Rx (www.private-rx.com)

Canvassing breaks Council agreement

Canvassing on behalf of a group of seven candidates in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Council election has been taking place on the Private-Rx internet website.

Canvassing outside the internet has also been taking place, with one locum pharmacist in Wales leaving notes at pharmacies urging people to vote for the seven candidates.

The seven candidates concerned are all standing for a common cause using the slogan "Save our Society". Five of them are subscribers to the Private-Rx website.

The Society requires all candidates to give an undertaking to refrain from canvassing for votes and to dissuade people from canvassing on their behalf.

Most of the seven candidates say that they are unaware that canvassing has been taking place on their behalf and that it is not sanctioned by them. One said: "I have not asked anyone to canvass on my behalf." Another commented: "I don't want any canvassing to take place on my behalf. The canvassers are mildly embarrassing me."

Two candidates take a different view. The prohibition on canvassing is a gentleman's agreement, one said, adding: "I doubt that it is enforceable anyway. If nobody can canvass then it favours the incumbent candidates. The system is quite unfair." He added that the Council had already agreed to change the rules next year. "Why wait a year?"

Another said: "If you're having an election you have to make sure that the electorate is informed. If you don't have canvassing people are voting blind. To talk of modernisation and say that you are not allowed to canvass your views is ridiculous."

This is the last year in which canvassing in the Council election is to be prohibited. The Council decided at the end of last year that the current restriction on canvassing will not apply to elections once the Council structure has been reformed under its agenda for modernisation (PJ, 14 December 2002, p863).

Philip Green, deputy secretary of the Society, said that the Council had recognised that enforcement of the current rules was not sustainable in the long term.

The Council had decided not to change the rules for this year's election because guidance would need to be developed for candidates on their legal obligations with respect to publicity. The Society would also want to develop guidance on negative campaigning.