Q. What's at stake?
A. There are 15 council positions. The presidential candidate must run as part of a nine-member slate, which also includes a deputy president, four vice-presidents and three council members. Six remaining council member positions will be contested on an individual basis.
Q. Who forms the ad hoc electoral committee?
A. The three-man committee is made up of: K. Bala Chandran, chairman of the FAS disciplinary committee; Jeffrey Beh, chairman of the FAS ethics committee; and J. Balasubramaniam, deputy chairman of the FAS audit and compliance committee.
The committee is responsible for performing the integrity check on each candidate running for the FAS Council. This includes scrutinising a candidate's financial, legal and police records. Matters like potential conflicts of interest will also be assessed.
Other responsibilities include drawing up the list of eligible voters and conducting the voting process.
Q. What happens next ?
A. Nominations must be delivered by hand to the FAS general secretariat by 6pm, March 25. From March 25 to April 1, the committee will examine the candidates' suitability. Should a candidate on a slate fail to qualify for one of the key positions, he/she may be replaced by someone within the slate.
The resulting vacancy can then be filled by someone from outside the slate within two days.
Candidates can appeal against the committee's decision within three days. The final list of approved candidates will be sent to all FAS members at least 10 days before the date of the election.
Q. What is the voting process?
A. The FAS has 44 affiliates with voting rights and the election will be conducted by secret ballot. For teams contesting through a slate, a minimum of two-thirds (30) of the votes is needed to win.
Should this be inconclusive, a second ballot will be invoked and a simple majority - more than 50 per cent - is sufficient to win.
If this also ends in a tie, the team with the most votes from the third ballot onwards will be elected.
In the contest for individual positions, each person can vote for only one candidate as a council member. If a candidate obtains 50 per cent or more of the votes cast in the first round, he/she is elected.
For the subsequent rounds of voting, whoever gets the most votes gets elected and whoever has the least will be eliminated. If there are only six candidates, they will be elected if they pass the integrity checks.
Nicole Chia
