Council election candidates sought
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is calling
for nominations of pharmacists to fill five unreserved places on
the Council for the next three years (p117).
The closing date for nominations is 3 March, the voting papers will be
sent out at the end of March and the votes must be received by 5 May.
The results of the election will be published in The Journal of 13 May
and the new Council members will take office on 25 May — the day
after the Society’s annual general meeting.
The five vacancies this year arise from the retirement of the five pharmacists
who were elected with the fewest votes last year, when all 14 unreserved
places for pharmacists on the new Council were filled. The five are Shiv
Bagga, Dorothy Drury, Andrew McCoig, Bharat Nathwani and Douglas Simpson,
all of whom are eligible for re-election. Their attendance
records at Council meetings are published this week (p117).
A further six Council members were elected last year to serve until 2007.
They are Gerald Alexander, Sultan Dajani, Davan Eustace, John Gentle,
John Jolley and Stephen Wells. The three Council members elected with
the most votes — Martin Astbury, Hemant Patel and Graham Phillips — serve
until 2008, as do the pharmacists elected to the three national seats — Jonathan
Buisson (England, Isle of Man and Channel Islands), David Thomson (Scotland)
and Colin Ranshaw (Wales). Also serving until 2008 is Stephen Denyer,
the pharmacist elected by the schools of pharmacy to represent academic
pharmacy.
There is no election of a registered pharmacy technician this year. Of
the two technicians elected to the new Council last year, Lesley Morgan
serves until 2008 and Corinne Hunt serves until 2007.
We also reproduce this week the Council’s policy on Council elections (p117). As a general principle, the Council considers that the election
should be conducted so as to give all candidates an equal opportunity
of presenting their views. The Council has set out criteria that it believes
will prevent any candidate having an advantage over his colleagues by
virtue of his financial resources or other special influence.
The policy document says that sending out statements of policy with the
voting papers allows candidates the maximum freedom of expression and
is the only practical method of presenting candidates’ unedited
views to the membership.
The Council no longer places restrictions on candidates seeking votes
through canvassing or letters to pharmaceutical journals but,
to avoid The Journal being swamped with contributions, it sets out a
scheme that should allow equal coverage for those candidates who wish
to avail themselves of it.
The Council does not object to branches or regions arranging meetings
at which candidates express their views, provided that those candidates
who cannot attend may have a statement read to the meeting.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal