Conference Agenda Oct 2021 PRINT - Flipbook - Page 11
answers for publication on the members’ website.
So many questions (several hundred) were received
that it was impossible to pass them all on and
publish responses. Some questions on Party policy
misunderstood the role of the Party leader, who unlike
in other parties does not decide Party policy. Some
groups of questions on items not covered at hustings
were put together and passed on to candidates and
the responses were published on the members’
website at https://members.greenparty.org.uk/yourvote-counts/internal-elections-2021/leadership.
National hustings questions are also moderated by the
ERO.
declined the request for a recall. We felt that strong
and immediate action by GPRC was necessary for the
wellbeing of the Party and to prevent the ballot being
declared void immediately or in the future. At the time
of writing, declaration of a void ballot is still possible
if a material impact from this intervention is clear.
After the item was removed and the two promoted
candidate pairs confirmed that they had not approved
the Acting Leader taking this action, ballot papers
were sent out.
Content is not directly covered by the regulations, but
promotion of content is. I asked for removal of two
other posts that used the Party logo to promote a
single candidate and both were removed:
Recognised party groups can arrange in-person or
‘email hustings’ which I took to mean that they could
send moderated questions directly to all candidates.
The regulations say that Yes/No answers must not be
required (e.g. pledges) and I asked groups to ensure
these were not asked in questions that they sent
directly to candidates and informed candidates that
they had a right not to answer such questions as they
should not be asked.
The job of the ERO is to establish a level playing field
for candidates and the Regulations do not allow the
Party logo to be used to promote a candidate by either
the candidate or other members of the Party, unless
all candidates are equally promoted. Problems were
raised by the use of the Party logo to promote some
candidates and denigrate others, which in the view of
the ERO and DERO was contrary to the Regulations.
If a third party has materially affected the ballot,
whether by acting against the regulations or in some
other way, then the ballot can be declared void by the
ERO.
To forestall this, the Acting Leader as a third party
was asked to remove a video and a tweet that in the
view of the ERO and DERO had been posted using the
Green Party logo with the intention of using the logo
and the Acting Leader’s prestige and influence in the
Party to materially affect the ballot for their successor
in both a positive (for candidates) and negative
(against candidates) way. This item had 15k views in
the hours before removal, which was an indication
that the Acting Leader does have substantial
prestige and influence, and any member retweeting
(promoting) this content could have been in violation
of the regulations. The ERO and DERO then asked
Regional Council (GPRC) to recall the Acting Leader,
using the precedent set recently by the Chair of GPEx
when asking for recall of another GPEx member, that
any single member can ask for such a recall. GPRC
A Facebook post by the Party that included a ‘twibbon’
promoting a candidate; and A Facebook post ‘one
year on’ by the Green Party Anti-Fracking Campaign
Working Group promoting a candidate.
Voting in the Leadership ballot closes on September
23rd 10pm with the count due to occur on 29th after
postal ballots have been input with announcement of
results on 1st October.
6)
A report by SOC of any changes that they have
adopted to their Standing Orders;
No changes to our Standing Orders.
7)
Progress on Organisational Statements;
Our progress on our Organisational Statements in
RoOS at https://spaces.greenparty.org.uk/s/roos/ and
in Appendix 3 falls into three categories:
Category 1 (Completed)
•
To publish the revised SOCC passed at Spring
Conference 2021 to members
•
To update and maintain the Record of
Organisational Statements (RoOS)
•
To update SOPD (Standing Orders for Party
Discipline) in accordance with D02 Spring
Conference 2021 as amended by amendments 4 to
9, 11 and ensure it is published to members.
•
To update the constitution in accordance with
D02 Spring Conference 2021 as amended by
amendments 1-3 and D03 as amended and publish
to members.
SOCC and RoOS have their own greenspaces
for publication by SOC to members. SOPD and
the constitution are published on the members’
website ‘home page’ by staff, under Governance.
The documents were updated and published.
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