Board Election Protocol, Rules and Regulations 2024 (BEPRR 2024)

Approved by the Election Committee on February 14, 2025 via previous consensus; with incorporated suggestions from the Board of Directors via #consensus-discussion-0013-creation-of-the-board-election-protocol-rules-and-regulations-2024

Drafted by Sugeeth Jayaraj S.A. and introduced to Project Troopers on November 29, 2024; in his capacity as Head of the Election Committee and the Collaborator In-Charge of Project Troopers.

Introduction

1. This act will be called the "Board Election Protocol, Rules and Regulations 2024", and will be introduced to the Election Committee. The Election Committee will have the power to vet and approve this bill.

2. The act will referred by the shorthand "BEPRR 2024" and will be empowered by the Legal Stature of Project Troopers. It will be henceforth referred to as an "act" for the purposes of writing in this document.

3. Scope: The act will govern all elections to the Board and the actions of the Election Committee during the Board Elections.

4. Ethos: The act aims to ensure that free and fair elections to the Board are conducted by the Election Committee, in accordance to the Legal Stature.

5. Definition of Director: In addition to the definition of director in the Legal Stature, the word "Director" shall also refer to anyone with director-level powers.

6. Protection of Act: This act will be protected with AP 86 provision, and will apply to any process it oversees.

7. Regulatory Oversight: When a law does not exist in the act for a particular situation under the jurisdiction of this act, it shall be within the purview of the Election Committee to take decisions; adhering to the Ethos of this act.

8. Limitation of Power of CIC: The CIC, when this act comes into force, will not be allowed to select arbitrary directors that exceed the number of elected directors on the Board.

9. Definition of Conflict of Interest: A conflict of interest occurs when a member of the Project has vested interest that will impede or interfere with the ethos of a particular process to which he has an obligated responsibility.

Start of Elections

1. When the tenure of a director ends, that director will automatically resign from his post on the Board.

2. He will remain in the post as a caretaker until a new person is elected to the board.

3. Powers of Caretaker Director:

   1. Watchdog: He shall be informed of all activities of the Board.

   2. Vote Power: He will not be allowed to vote in any of the Board's internal proceedings. However, in extraordinary situations or when the board is having a tie-breaker for a particular decision, the caretaker director can cast a vote with temporary power for the purposes of the vote alone.

   3. Seat: His "Director" seat will be considered vacant; and his presence will not count towards the "members limit" of the Board.

   4. Tenure: The tenure of the director will last only until the replacement director swears in and takes charge of the office.

4. The Election Committee is immediately obligated to inform the respective members of Project Troopers about the vacancy of the Board post.

5. During this time, the election committee will elect the ECP (Election Committee Professional) who will oversee the elections. The ECP should not have a conflict of interest with the election process. The recommended ECP is the Head of Election Committee, however any member can be appointed by the Election Committee as the ECP.

6. Any member of the Election Committee that has conflict of interest with the Election Process will automatically be recused from any proceedings related to the Election. His powers will be granted back to the Election Committee as a whole.

7. When the threshold of the Board is below the accepted threshold for the functioning of the Board due to the expiration of the tenure of its members, as prescribed in the DOPA 2024; the Board will cease to discharge its functions and all the executive functions of the Board will be delegated to the Election Committee during the process of elections. This action will not constitute Conflict of Interest with respect to the Election Process in any way. The Election Committee is not allowed to execute its Board powers in order to further its powers; and it shall ensure that Board powers shall be executed independent of its Election Committee powers.

   1. The Board will become the caretaker Board during the election process.

   2. When the needs of the project are such that a legislative decision needs to be taken, or an Emergency occurs, or the Election Committee needs to take a decision that requires legislative intervention of any sort; the caretaker Board shall vote on the matter and temporarily discharge the powers of the Board for the particular decision.

   3. The Board executive power granted to the Election Committee will be limited by a Basic Structure put down by the ArbCom at any time.

Course of Election

1. A director seat shall fall under two categories: General seat, or Special seat; in accordance to legal stature.

   1. The General seat is a seat that is assigned to a particular regiment or division of Project Troopers. Each regiment will get a seat on the Board. In the case there are too many regiments, the associated division will be relegated the seat. The seat will be occupied by an elected member of the regiment/division; by voting among the members of the regiment/division.

   2. The Special seat is an open seat that is open to all members of Project Troopers. A special seat can not be converted to a General Seat again, in any case.

   3. The appointment of the type of a seat during non-election times will be the job of an EGM.

   4. If no candidate does not step-up for the election after the invitation to compete in the election was extended; and if the seat was a general seat, then the seat shall temporarily transform into a Special seat for the purposes of the particular election alone. The election process must be repeated again for seat with respect to its new status.

2. The election process must start in the appropriate channel. The following voting channels are approved:

   1. Physical Voting - It can via secret paper ballot or open voting.

   2. WhatsApp Poll: Open Voting

   3. Online opinion-gathering platform such as Google Forms: Secret Ballot

   Physical evidence of the secret ballots must be discarded as soon as possible; or should stored in highly encrypted platforms that can only be accessed by the ECP.

3. The ECP must first extend an open invitation to eligible voters via the announcement channels or respective regiment/division groups to compete for the elections. The interested party may express their wish to compete for the election secretly or openly. The interested party shall be henceforth called a candidate; and the candidature can only be held by a single person. Multiple candidates can compete against each other. The invitation must remain open more than 1 week.

4. The ECP should also publish a Model Code of Conduct for all candidates. A candidate can identify, represent, and align themselves with an aligned group within the electrorate. The aligned group will be called a "party".

5. The ECP has to form a panel from the Election Committee or Project members that do not have a conflict of interest. This panel will be called the "Candidate Verification Panel" (CVP) that will vet the candidates.

   1. The CVP has the power to request details from the Candidate for verification purposes; which the candidate can choose to provide or deny.

   2. The CVP can accept or reject the nomination of a candidate if they find anything illegal or incompatible with the Legal Stature. They are, however, supposed to provide proper and detailed reasoning for any rejected or accepted candidates.

   3. Appeals Against Candidate Rejection (Course of Election): A candidate rejected by the Candidate Verification Panel (CVP) has the right to appeal within 3 days of the rejection notice.

      1. The Election Committee will form an Appeals Panel of 3 impartial members to review the appeal.

      2. The panel must provide a final decision with detailed reasoning within 5 days of receiving the appeal.

6. After verification; the Election Committee is required to publish the nomination details of the candidate (regardless oof whether they were accepted or rejected) in public domain and any information collected during the vetting process, along with the reason of acceptance or rejection. The published details must remain accessible until the demise of Project Troopers, unless and until deemed necessary by ArbCom to take down content.

7. The ECP shall allow for a campaign time of 2 weeks. During the 2 weeks, the Election Committee will have the power to impose reasonable restrictions and temporarily arbitrate over disputes due to the election for the purposes of election; without hampering the campaign much. The campaign must allow for the free and fair conduct of the election process.

8. The Election Committee then can conduct the election a day after the end of the campaign.

9. The electorate must have the option to vote for "None of the Candidates" too (NOTA). If the amount of NOTA votes has garnered more than 50% of votes, then the election must be reconducted.

10. The Election Results must be declared within 3 days after the end of election; and the information must remain publicly accessible throughout the life of Project Troopers.

11. The candidate with the most number of votes will become the Director-elect for the particular seat; the Director can swear into office on the next day after the declaration of result.

Exceptions and Extra Rules (EER)

1. Unopposed Candidates: If only one candidate shall choose to compete in the elections, the candidate must be verified; and an invitation to call for competing candidates must be extended again. If no one still accepts the invitation; then the only candidate that is standing for the elections will automatically declared the winner.

2. Hassle-Free Elections: The Election Committee must ensure the process proceeds without technical failures, delays, or conflicts. Examples of disruptions include platform outages or unverified voters.

3. Emergency Protocols: In emergencies, the Election Committee may propose extensions to given deadlines or alternative arrangements, subject to majority approval. The aim would be to ensure that every voter and candidate gets equal and fair opportunity.

Data Retention and Privacy

1. Candidate Information:

   • Data collected during verification must be securely encrypted.

   • All candidate-related data must remain accessible unless otherwise mandated by the Arbitration Committee (ArbCom).

2. Voter Data:

   • Election data must be retained securely for auditing purposes and deleted within 6 months unless otherwise required or stated above.

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© Legislation of Project Troopers.