Elections

2010 Elections Results

The election process is now closed and the new Board members will take over from February 2011. Please find below the results of the 2010 Regional Board Members election.

Africa:
Mr Theobald Owusu-Ansah won the election in the first round by 60% of votes cast.

Americas:
Mr Michael Ninburg won the election in the second round by 50% of votes cast plus the President’s casting vote.
In the first round of the Americas election no candidate received an absolute majority of more than 50% of votes cast. Therefore a second round of voting was organised between the 2 candidates who received the most votes (Eduardo Enrique Pérez Pegué and Michael Ninburg). In the second round of voting, each candidate received 50% of the votes, which created an impasse.  As stated in our election rules, the Alliance’s President has the casting vote in any tied vote, which he used in favour of Mr Ninburg. Since, in the President’s view, both candidates appeared to be of equally high calibre, the choice was made on the basis of practical and economic considerations.

Eastern Mediterranean:
Mr Nady Chaïa won the election in the second round by 100% of  votes cast.
In the first round of the Eastern Mediterranean election no candidate received an absolute majority of more than 50% of votes cast. Therefore a second round of voting was organised between the 2 candidates who received the most votes (Nady Chaïa and Adel Elbakry, MD). In the second round of voting, Mr Chaïa received all castvotes cast.

Europe:
Mr Dalibor Ruzic won the election in the first round by 57.14% of votes cast.

South East Asia:
Mr Humayun Kabir, MD won the election in the first round by 100% of votes cast.

Western Pacific:
Anthong Tze Ching Wong won the election in the first round by 100% of votes cast.  

Nomination

Each Voting Member may nominate one candidate for election as Regional Board Member for the Region. The candidate must be someone who has or has had chronic hepatitis B or chronic hepatitis C and must reside in the country in which the Member is based. Nominations must be made to the Alliance at least thirty-one days prior to the election.

Only one candidate will be accepted from a single country. Voting Members based in the same country will therefore need to co-operate with each other in the choice of a candidate. If more than one candidate continues to be proposed by the Voting Members of a single country at the end of the period during which nominations are accepted, no candidate will be considered nominated from that country.

The final list of nominated candidates will be posted on the Alliance website at least fourteen days prior to the election. 

Election

Each Voting Member may only vote for the Regional Board Member for their own region, each Voting Member having one vote. However, in order to prevent any country having undue influence within a region, the votes from the Voting Members within each country will be tallied and a single country vote applied to the candidate receiving most votes. If more than one candidate has the same number of votes from Members within one country, all Members from that country will be asked to revote for one of the candidates with equal votes. If this second round still fails to produce a clear winner of the country’s votes, the outgoing Regional Board Member for that region will have the deciding vote. This process will be made much simpler if members within each country agree to cast their votes for the same candidate.

Once the votes from each country have been decided, the Regional Board Members will be decided by simple majority of votes cast. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of more than 50% of the votes cast, there will be a second round of voting between only the 2 candidates who received the most votes, again with only one vote per country as outlined above. In any tied vote the President will have the casting vote. Elections will be overseen by independent scrutineers. 

Regional Board Member Job Description

The six Regional Board Members (as with the President) must all be chronic viral hepatitis patients, defined as someone who has or has had chronic hepatitis B or chronic hepatitis C infection.

The Regional Board Members serve for a term of two years and may, if re-elected, serve for a maximum of three consecutive terms, a total of six years. 

The Regional Board Members are elected by a majority vote of the Voting Members of their respective regions.

In line with the philosophy of the Alliance, the role of the Regional Board Members is:

• To ensure the Alliance is always a ‘patient organisation’ and is completely committed to the well-being of people living with viral hepatitis and those at risk (this is the most important aspect of the role)
• To provide governance and strategic direction to the Alliance
• To represent the patient groups in their region and their interests within the Alliance
• To help patient groups with national advocacy, where requested
• To encourage patient groups to work together, both nationally and regionally, to bring together the global community and provide cohesion and strength
• To encourage patient groups to join the Alliance
• To encourage participation in World Hepatitis Day

Given that Regional Board Members will be patients and may not be in the best of health, the role is designed to be not too time-consuming. However, our experience over the last two years suggests that people already running a patient group do not have enough spare time to give to this role and we would discourage anyone with a full-time job from applying, even if they are in excellent health.

The job will entail:

• At least one two-day physical Board Meeting every year (likely to take place in London); the first Board Meeting with the new Regional Board Members will be held in February 2011
• Liaison with the Alliance’s permanent staff in London in order to be fully informed about the relevant region (e.g. who the Members are, their contact details, which other organisations want to participate in World Hepatitis Day)
• Respond, in consultation with the Alliance staff, to requests from Members for help with national advocacy, which may involve some travelling
• Monitor emails regularly and respond in a timely manner to concerns of Members and, where appropriate, bring these concerns to the attention of the Alliance staff and/or the Board

As this is a very new organisation, the role of the Regional Board Members will evolve over time. However, the role is not to dictate what patient groups should do or how they should operate. The role is not one of power, but of responsibility.

Since governance experience, although desirable, is not required for the role of Regional Board Member (representing the views of patients is more important), the Board will also include a number of Non-Voting Board Members able to offer advice and other input. These will include Dr Steven Wiersma, the viral hepatitis lead at WHO Geneva as well as any additional viral hepatitis patients as necessary to ensure that there is sufficient representation for both hepatitis B and hepatitis C.