Explaining the Nomination Process by Yorro K. Sanyang

The Poll Officers: Yorro Wuyeh Sanyang (Moderator), Haruna Farage (Constitutional Consultant), Ousman Kamara (Secretary)

Recently, the Poll Officers issued a statement on the time line of the electoral process. I would like to elaborate on the whole process from nominations to the final inaugurations of candidates.

Nominations

According to the constitution of Basse Association Inc. (BA), only active, registered members are eligible to vote and be voted into office (Please refer to the constitution if necessary). Nominations will be conducted through online electronic mail and/or the mybasse.org website if necessary. The poll officers have consolidated a list of all eligible voters and will be communicating with them through email, telephone or postal mail. The (Elections) menu found on the upper right hand corner of this website will be primarily used as the medium of communications for the electoral process. All members are urged to be consulting the site for updates and instructions. 

Nominations will start on Monday December 7, 2009 and will run through Thursday December 31, 2009. We urge each voter to nominate one person for only one single position they deem them fit to serve. The selection process will be interactive, meaning that you will have the opportunity to type in the full name of the person you intend to nominate. Please make sure that you highlight the oval next to “Your Candidate” before or after typing in your candidates for all the positions before clicking “DONE”.  The instructions are clearly indicated on the email, please just take your time and follow the instructions. Here is a sample screen shot you will receive for your nominations:
 

Nominations will be followed by a Grace Period to facilitate further consultations which will run from Friday January 1, 2010 through Thursday January 7, 2010. It is during this period that results of the nominations will be published on the website. Consultations with the candidates will take place to confirm their candidacy for the particular office they are running for. In the event that there is a need for primaries, arrangements will be made to run them through the Declaration period.

Declaration of candidates will start by Friday January 8, 2010 through Thursday January 14, 2010. The website will be utilized to publish all the candidates running for office and the positions they will be running for. The same communiqué will also be sent to all the candidates running for office.

Campaign for the elections will start on Friday January 15, 2010 through Sunday February 7,2010. During this period, candidates are expected to run their election campaigns in preparations for the election.

 Voting Process

Voting proper will begin on Monday February 8, 2010 and ending Monday February 15, 2010. During this period, all eligible voters will have the opportunity to exercise their voting rights to select their candidates through the polls. The voting process will just be like the nominations process except for the fact that candidates would have already been identified. The voting would be a matter of choosing out of an identified list of candidates with their pictures and brief biographies by clicking on your desired candidate.

All results will be declared between Tuesday February 16, 2010 and Wednesday February 17, 2010 through the website. The same communiqué will also be sent to all the candidates who have contested in the elections.

On Thursday February 18, 2010, the candidates will be inaugurated into office to take over their formal responsibilities as stipulated by the constitution.

Yorro K. Sanyang is the moderator of the Poll Officers and a member of the Steering Committee of the Basse Association, Inc. He lives in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, USA.