Elections

2012 Elections

The 2012 election for the Regional Board Members of the World Hepatitis Alliance was scheduled for the last quarter of 2012. The newly elected Board has a mandate of 2 years, starting from January 2013 and ending in December 2014. The next election is scheduled for the second half of 2014.

Election of Regional Board Members 2012:

Africa - A majority of countries voted for: Theobald Owusu-Ansah.
Americas - After a second round of voting a majority of countries voted for: Gerardo de Jesús Villavicencio Obregón.
Eastern Mediterranean - The candidate Nady Chaïa was elected unopposed.
Europe - A majority of countries voted for: Dalibor Ruzic.
South East Asia - The candidate MD Humayun Kabir was elected unopposed.
Western Pacific - After a second round of voting a majority of countries had not voted for either candidate, and so the President of the Alliance had the casting vote for: Christopher L. Malco.

For more information on the Board Members click here.

See below for further information on election procedures and the role of the Board.

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 Members

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);
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.

The Board must be able to reflect the views of both hepatitis B and hepatitis C patients. Therefore, the Board must appoint additional Non-Executive Board Members to ensure that at all times the Board contains at least two hepatitis B and two hepatitis C patients. 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 may choose to appoint Non-Executive Board Members able to offer advice.