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Council election procedure

The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7184 p191-192
9 February 2002

Council election procedure

The Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has decided that its policy in relation to Council elections should be published each year to enable the membership, and candidates in the election in particular, to be fully aware of the Council's current views on the matter.

As a general principle, the Council remains convinced that the membership is best served when each aspect of the election is conducted in a manner that, so far as possible, gives candidates an equal opportunity of presenting their views to the membership.

The following criteria will, in the Council's view, prevent any member having an advantage over colleagues by virtue of financial resources or any other special influence. They represent a relaxation of previous rules and are designed: (a) to encourage more members to vote in the Council election and (b) to ensure that those members who do vote are as well informed about the candidates as possible.

1. Canvassing The Council firmly believes that individual canvassing is not appropriate in elections for membership of the governing body of a profession.

Candidates are expected to refrain from any personal canvassing or from requesting or giving permission for canvassing to be done on their behalf, including on-line canvassing by use of e-mail or internet discussion groups. Candidates who become aware that any person, group or organisation intends to canvass on their behalf will be expected to make every effort to dissuade those concerned from doing so.

2. Biographical details Biographical details, which are published in The Pharmaceutical Journal, will be standardised under the following headings: (a) name and town; (b) age; (c) year of registration; (d) academic qualifications; (e) civil honours; (f) professional awards; (g) current positions held; (h) previous positions held (with dates). Both (g) and (h) are subdivided as follows: (i) occupation, branch of pharmacy and position held; (ii) public service positions; (iii) positions held as either an officer or a member of the governing body or committee of any pharmaceutical organisation, including the local branch of the Society; and (iv) positions held as either an officer or a member of the governing body or committee of any ore ganisation associated with health services, science or pharmaceutical education. Candidates, if they wish, may make further reference to their history or experience in their statements of policy.

Candidates are also asked to declare positions or companies from which they benefit financially, under the headings: (a) remunerated directorships of companies, public or private; (b) remunerated employments, offices, trades, professions or vocations; (c) the names of companies or other bodies in which the candidate has to his or her knowledge, either alone or with or on behalf of a spouse or infant children, a beneficial interest in shareholdings of a nominal value greater than one-hundredth of the issued share capital.

3. Residential requirement Candidates in the election must be members of the Society who are normally resident in Great Britain, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

4. Statements of policy Candidates' statements of policy will continue to be sent direct to each member of the Society with the voting papers, thereby allowing candidates the maximum freedom of expression. The Council considers that this is the only practical method of presenting to the membership the unedited views of each candidate. The length of each candidate's statement of policy and biographical details should not exceed 630 words.

5. Contributions to the pharmaceutical press The editor of The Pharmaceutical Journal will continue the policy of not accepting letters from candidates for inclusion in the issue in which the nominations are published and thereafter until the date of the election. Candidates will be asked to observe the spirit of the Journal policy by not sending letters to other pharmaceutical journals for inclusion in issues which will be published after the end of March.

The Council accepts, however, that it is frustrating to candidates if they cannot comment on questions of interest to the profession, which have arisen since a statement of policy was prepared. To overcome this problem and so assist members to make the most informed decision possible when voting, the Council has agreed that the editors of The Pharmaceutical Journal and other pharmaceutical publications will be invited to pose up to three questions to each candidate standing for the Council election. The questions will be topical and the candidates' replies will be published in the respective journals.

The timing of publication will, with advantage, be as close as possible to the mailing of the voting papers and obviously will be after the nominations for election have been published in The Pharmaceutical Journal. Questions asked will be at the discretion of individual editors and each response will be restricted in length to ensure fairness. Candidates will be given a deadline by which to respond and the editors will nasturally reserve the right to edit the responses, normally in consultation with the candidate.

6. "House" and member organisation magazines It is recognised that candidates might wish to make an announcement regarding their intention to run for the Council election in the official magazine of any organisations of which they are a member or employee. There will be no objection to the publication of news announcements in "house" magazines, member organisation magazines and newsletters published by the Society's membership or special interest groups, provided the following conditions are observed: (a) the announcement is of a factual nature, and supplies no more details than candidates' name, place of residence, age and current connection with the organisation concerned; (b) the announcement is published free of charge; (c) if there is more than one candidate making an announcement, each candidate is given the same amount of space in the magazine; (d) if a photograph is to be published with the announcement it is a recent one of modest size. It will be possible for announcements of this nature to be published at any time leading up to an election.

There will also be no objection to magazines of this kind undertaking a similar exercise as that described for The Pharmaceutical Journal and other pharmaceutical publications. The editors may therefore pose up to three questions to all candidates standing for the Council election, following the same procedures and subject to the same conditions.

7. Branch and regional newsletters Similarly, there is no objection to branch and regional newsletters publishing the views of candidates on any particular topic, provided certain criteria are observed. All candidates in the election should be given an equal opportunity to participate up to a stated maximum number of words, and the views expressed by candidates should be printed without editorial comment or amendment, except in the latter case where publication might lead to libel action. It would not be equitable if a branch or regional committee newsletter asked for support for one or more candidates, particularly for geographical reasons.

8. Adherence of candidates to the rules As previously stated, the rules are intended to ensure that each candidate has an equal opportunity of presenting policies to the electorate. Adherence to these rules is a matter of accepting this policy and abiding by the rules as a matter of personal integrity. In the past there have been complaints that some candidates have not adhered to the spirit of the rules.

Candidates standing for the Council election will be required to sign a declaration confirming: (a) their agreement to abide by the Council election procedures; and (b) that they will do everything possible to ensure that others do not, on their behalf, act in conflict with the rules.

The material sent to candidates and the declaration mentioned above will clearly state the period during which the protocols for this procedure will be in force, which will normally be from the end of March until the date of the election.

Any candidate who appears to breach the signed declaration will be required to give an explanation to the President and the Council as to why they allowed a breach of the protocol to occur. This will apply to a candidate whether or not elected to the Council.

9. Hustings The Council, while it has decided that the Society centrally should not organise a hustings event, does not object to outside organisations as well as regions or branches arranging events of this kind if they so wish, provided all candidates are given an equal opportunity to present their views. There will be no restriction on the reporting of hustings events by the pharmaceutical press. Travelling distances may make it difficult for all candidates to attend such meetings. The Council considers that if a candidate cannot attend, he or she should have an opportunity of submitting a statement, equal in length to the opening statements of candidates who are able to attend, to be read by the chairman or some other appropriate person.