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| It's that walrus again... |
Well, I managed to get myself re-elected to International Relations Committee, elected on the sixth count in third place, which was somewhat unexpected, given the quality of the opposition. Various people had been very supportive but, given the size of the electorate and my lack of 'celebrity', for want of a better word, one can never take anything for granted.
So, thank you to all those of you who supported me, regardless of where you put me on the ballot paper. I'm already hard at work preparing for the new committee, so you'll hopefully see a more visible Federal International Relations Committee over the coming weeks, months and years.
There will be a new Chair of the Committee to elect, which won't be me - I'm not running. However, one of the other five directly elected members will be taking the job on, and I have initiated a process of seeking nominations from them so that we can move forward quickly, if possible. I will be seeking to stay on as Secretary though, and we'll see if anyone else comes forward to oppose me.
The result of the election of the ALDE Party Council delegation was not so great. I came fifth which, given that there were five places to be elected, sounds good. However, I fell foul of Election Rule 10(b);
As required by the September 1992 conference motion elections to the ALDE Council delegation shall include a minimum of one person from each State Party and one person under the age of 26 at the time of election.
This meant that I was overtaken by Peter Price, the only Welsh candidate (there were no Scots or young people standing). There is, I would suggest, a certain irony in losing an election due to a twenty-four year old rule that very few people had realised was in existence. I'm guessing that I'll be first reserve in the event that someone drops out, but I'll need to check how that works.
So, I'm going to be busy in 2017, regardless. I'm going to have to be better with this blog though...
You may hope to be first reserve if someone drops out but, unless that is Peter Price, you can't be certain because a recount will be needed to determine any replacement.
ReplyDeleteThe most galling thing about the FE discovering Election Rule 10(b) is that the country each candidate comes from was not indicated in the voting progress, most irregularly.
When the rule was introduced, it was alongside a rule that required such reserved places to be contested by at least as many again of the category (i.e. in this case a second Welshman had to stand). So Peter Price would not have been elected had conference not been persuaded to allow people free rides onto committees.