Executive Council Election 2020

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  To: Unite Branches 
From: Andrew Murray, Chief of Staff
Subject: Executive Council Election 2020  

Dear Branch Secretary,

As you know, due to the coronavirus outbreak with the consequent restrictions on normal life in this period and on the advice of Civica Election Services (CES) who are acting as Returning officer and Independent Scrutineer for this election the union reluctantly took the decision to freeze the Executive Council election towards the end of March. At that time we said that we would come back with a revised timetable as soon as possible.

Taking into account that the election is fully postal and that the postal system is working more or less as normal it has been decided to be restart the election. Having consulted CES in this regard they have advised us they require a slightly longer preparation and production time than previously agreed to enable them to operate with sufficient social distancing between employees. Accordingly the election is being re-started in accordance with the following revised timetable.
 
In accordance with the frozen timetable.

Eligibility to vote cut-off date – 31st December 2019
Nominations and acceptance of nominations closed – 19th February 2020  
Revised Timetable

Voting Period – 18th May to 18th June
Deadline for Voting papers to be returned to the Independent Scrutineer – 12 noon Thursday 18th June
Verification of count – 19th June 2020
New EC takes office – 22nd June 2020  

There is no change to eligibility to vote for members in the election i.e. anyone who has joined and is a paying member on 31st December 2019 is eligible to vote in this election. Retired Members Plus may vote for the national Retired Member constituency only. Community members may not vote in this election.

The new Executive Council’s term of office will therefore be 22nd June 2020 to 30th April 2023.

A helpline for members who have not received their ballot paper will open on 2nd June. We will be in touch again with further details of the helpline, along with a notice you can use to publicise this amongst your members.

Regards

Andrew Murray
Chief of Staff