Register to vote

Member Societies are invited to register online to attend the WFN AGM Council of Delegates Meeting, and to vote in the 2024 WFN Elections from Monday, 24th June 2024.

Why do you need to register online?

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the World Federation of Neurology and Council of Delegates Meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, 25th September 2024. 

Member societies are required to confirm if they will be attending the AGM Council of Delegates Meeting as well the name and contact details of their voting delegate. The voting delegate may be their official delegate to the WFN, an executive officer, or an ordinary member of the society with the authority to vote.

It is the responsibility of each WFN member society to contact the WFN Office if your Society has not received an email to register to attend the AGM and to vote. You should receive this during the week beginning Monday, 24th June 2024.

In case notification emails have been missed, please check your email spam/junk folders before contacting the WFN.

 

Eligibility to vote

Only WFN member societies who are up-to-date* with their membership dues are eligible to vote.  Any questions regarding whether dues have been paid or not should be directed to the WFN Office for clarification.

IMPORTANT: Only member societies who are eligible to vote and have confirmed the name of their voting delegate before the voting window closes** will be sent a link to the online ballot form.

* 2024 Deadline for paying dues is Friday, 6th September 2024.

** Voting closes Friday 13th September 2024 @ 1200 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), 1300 BST (British Sumer Time)

 

Invitation to vote

If a member society has registered to vote and are eligible to vote, an invitation to vote will be sent by email to the named voting delegate.  This invitation will include unique login details to access the online voting platform. 

  • Voting will open on Monday 26th August @ 1200 UTC (1300 BST).
  • Voting will close on Friday 13th September 2024 @ 1200 UTC (1300 BST).


If you have registered to vote but cannot find your invitation to vote before voting closes, please contact the WFN Office to find out why. It may be because some communications have been caught in junk mail.


What is being voted on?

In March of this year, the Nominating Committee of the WFN invited nominations for the position of one elected Trustee.

  • One Elected Trustee (three-year term)
    To take office immediately following the election (position vacated by Professor Alla Guekht, who is not eligible for re-election).

 

 

How to Vote

 

Method of voting

Each member society, eligible to vote, has 1 vote. The registered voting delegate of the member society is sent a unique link to the online voting form. This ensures that each Society can only submit one voting form for the registered email address of their voting delegate.

The voting method used is the Instant-runoff full preferential ranking method. This method, described below, allows the voting process to be completed in one voting round, reducing the risk of complications when voting.

The winner of the election will be the candidate preferred by more than 50% of voters. 

  1. The voting form will list all candidates (in alphabetical order by last name).
  2. Voters rank the candidates in order of preference from 1 to x, where x is the total number of candidates. 
  3. The voter’s 1st choice and most preferred candidate is ranked 1, the 2nd choice candidate is ranked 2, and so on until the least favoured candidate is ranked x being the least preferred choice of the voter. 

    The voting system requires all candidates to be ranked in order of preference before the vote can be submitted.

  4. Ballots are initially counted for each voter's 1st choice. If a candidate receives more than half of the votes based on 1st choices, that candidate wins and voting is concluded.
  5. If there is no candidate with more than 50% of the votes, the candidate with the least number of 1st choice votes is eliminated. 

    Note: If two or more candidates share the same number of lowest number of 1st choice votes, the number of 2nd choice votes they received—for those candidates up for elimination only—are taken into account. The candidate with the lowest combined count is eliminated. If necessary, this is repeated with voter's 3rd, 4th and subsequent choice votes.

  6. The vote from any voter who ranked the eliminated candidate 1st now has their original 2nd choice candidate moved up to become their 1st choice, their original 3rd choice becomes their new 2nd choice and so on. I.e. the order of choices in all votes are realigned as if the eliminated candidate did not exist.
  7. The number of 1st choice votes are recounted and the process of elimination is repeated until one candidate has more than half of the votes.


 

Tie-break

In a tiebreak, the casting or deciding vote by the presiding officer (i.e.  WFN President) is counted. This is a sealed vote by the presiding officer and is not used unless there is a tie at any stage of the election.

 

Missed votes

Voting closes on Friday, 13th September 2024
@ 1200 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) / 
1300 British Summer Time (BST)


If a member society fails to register to vote or fails to submit a completed voting form or abstains from voting, and they have not contacted the WFN Office at least 48 hours before voting closes, their vote is deemed null and void and will not be counted towards the result.

If you have registered to vote but do not receive your email with voting link before voting closes, please contact the WFN Office to find out why. It may be because some communications have been caught in junk mail or missed.

 

Anonymity and privacy

Voting is by secret ballot. This means that all vote entries are anonymous. No personally identifiable information, including IP address, are recorded in the voting form.

Voting delegates are sent a unique login to access the voting platform. Access to the voting platform is automatically disabled once the vote has been submitted or voting is closed (whichever is sooner).

The voting form is online and is accessed via an Internet browser over https://.  This means the voting responses are sent over a secure, encrypted connection.

 

Validating the voting result

The voting process is overseen by the London Office Senior Manager, the WFN IT Consultant, and the WFN Secretary General.

The results of the voting are checked and validated by an independent invigilator before being communicated to the Chair of the Council of Delegates Annual General Meeting.