Method of Voting – ICAI Council Elections – 2009

1)      The  elections  to the  Central/Regional  Councils  of our  Institute are to be held  on 5^th December,  2009,  in all cities.  However,  in Mumbai,  Ahmedabad, Pune, New Delhi, Delhi, Kolkatta,  Chennai,  Bangalore  and  Hyderabad  the elections  will be held on 4^th and  5^th December, 2009.  The  polling  booths  at  all places  will  remain  open from  8.00  A.M.  to  8.00  P.M. on  the dates  of  polling.   The  Institute  has  communicated  the details   about  all candidates,  addresses   of  polling  booths  and other  relevant  details   to each  voter.  The  number of  candidates to be elected  to  Central  as  well as  Regional  councils  have been increased  in the last Election and I was fortunate to head the first Council of 40 members – 32 Elected and 8 Government nominees (other than C.A.).

2)      Many members are now complaining or commenting about the functioning of the Institute or by some of the Council Members etc.  Many keep on complaining that the Institute is not satisfactorily working for the members particularly, for small and medium size firms specially when small and medium practitioners represent vast majority.  It is therefore, necessary for all of us to elect a strong Council at the Centre for better governance and furtherance of the profession.  Same stands equally true for electing most deserving candidate at the Regional Council.  This can become possible only and only if each and every member consider it his/her bounded duty to elect right candidates.  Later on one should not complain for any representative being not deserving etc., as finally Council represent what you have elected.  Therefore, after reading this, take an oath by yourself that in this election you will be consciously voting, giving your best preference so as to elect the best Council to make our ICAI the best Institute of Chartered Accountants in the world.

3)      In an  election of  this  type  each vote  is  valuable.  Our elections  are held   on the  ‘single  transferable’  vote  system,  under  which  the voter  has  to indicate  the preference  about the candidates  by inserting  the figures  1,2,3, etc.  against  the names of  candidates  according  to his/her  preference.  (This is the system to elect Hon. President of India’s voting and now also used by our Council to elect President of our Institute also). Some members  are  under  the impression   that only  the  ‘First  Preference’  vote is   of  value.  This impression is not correct. Never give a single Preference.  No single Vote please.  A  candidate  is  required  to obtain only  a specific  number  of  first  preference   votes  for  getting  himself   elected.  If  the  first preference  votes  obtained  by him  are  more  than  the  required  number,  the excess  is  transferred,  at  appropriate  value,  to the candidates  who have  secured  2^nd and  3^rd preferences.  If   voters  exercise  only their  first preference  for  a  particular candidate and do not mark subsequent preferences  and  that  candidate gets more than the required first  preference  votes, the  balance  of  votes  will  go waste.  Similarly,  if  the  number   of  first  preference  votes  received  by a  candidate are  much below  the required  quota,  the  candidates  getting  subsequent  preferences  will get  advantage   by way of  transfer  of  such votes  at  appropriate  value.  It is,  therefore,  essential   to note  that  a  voter  should not   select  only one  candidate  of his  choice  but  should  select  as  many candidates  as possible  and mark  his  preferences  for such  candidates.   It may be noted  that  by giving  second  or  subsequent  preferences,  the position  of the candidate  to whom  the first  preference  vote  is  given  will not  be  jeopardized.  This  will  help  the  voter  to get  at  least one  of the candidates  of his choice  elected.

4)      The  procedure  for  counting  the  votes  and  for  distribution  of the proportionate   value  of  various  preferences  to different  candidates  is somewhat  complicated.  An  attempt  has been made,  in the illustration given below,  to explain  the working  of this  system.  This illustration  amply  demonstrates  the value of  each  preference.

5)      Illustration

The  following  illustration is  given  on certain  assumptions  about the number  of  candidates   contesting  election, candidates  to be elected,  votes  cast  etc.  to explain  the procedure  for  counting  of  votes  under  single  transferable  system  of voting, e.g. Central Council from Western Region – purely hypothetically and illustrative.

Last Election

For  the sake  of  simplification, let us take  that  a candidate  needs  2100   first  preference votes for getting  elected.

6)      Let us presume that in the ensuing elections number  of  first  preference  votes  secured  by each candidate is  as  per table  below purely hypothetically.

7)      First  Count

(a)    Candidate  No. “A” &  “B”  will be  declared  as  elected  as  they  get  more  than  the required  quota  of  2100  votes.

SURPLUS DISTRIBUTION:

Candidate  No. A got  2400 Votes as against quota of 2100 and therefore 300 Votes  will be treated as Surplus Vote.

(b)   If  all the  2400  voters have   marked  their second  preferences,  the value  of each surplus  vote  will  work out  to   1/8  (300  / 2400).

(c)    On distribution  of  second  preference  votes,  the position  of  Candidates   who have  secured  second  preference  votes  ( i.e.  “X”   and “Y”)  will be as under.

Revised position on distribution of Surplus Votes of Candidate  No. “A”.

8)      Elimination  of  Candidate  No. “W”

(a)    Since  there is  no surplus  votes  with  other  candidates,  the candidate  who has got  the lowest  number  of  votes  will be eliminated  first.

(b)   On this  basis,  Candidate No.”W”    with  400  votes  will be  eliminated  and  second  preference  votes  marked  by the  400 voters  will be  transferred  to candidates  who have  received  second  preference  votes.

(c)    In such  elimination, the second  preference  votes  has  100%  value.  If  these  400  second  preference  votes  are  received  by   Candidates No. “T”, “U”,and “V” the position  will be  as under.

Revised position after Elimination of  Candidate No. “W” would be as under:

9)      Elimination  of  Candidate  No. “S”

(a)    Since  there is  no surplus  votes  with  other  candidates,  the candidate  who has got  the lowest  number  of  votes  will be eliminated  first.

(b)   On this  basis,  Candidate No.”S”    with  470  votes  will be  eliminated  and  second  preference  votes  marked  by the  470 voters  will be  transferred  to candidates  who have  received  second  preference  votes.

(c)    In such  elimination, the second  preference  votes  has  100%  value.  If  these  470  second  preference  votes  are  received by  Candidate No. “O”, “P” and “Q” the position  will be  as under.

`

10)  Elimination of  Candidate  No. “X”

(a)    After  the above  process,  Candidate No. ‘X’  will be eliminated  with 475  votes.  The value  of his 375  votes  where he has  received  first  preference,  will  be transferred  at  100%  value  to candidates  who have  received  second  preference  votes.  As  regards  800 votes  transferred  out of  surplus of  ‘1’  as  stated  in para  7 (c),  the benefit  will  be  given  to candidates  who have  received   Third  Preferences  in these   ballot  papers.  The  value  of  such votes  will be  1/8.

(b)   It is  noticed  that  400  voters  out of  the above  800  voters  have not  marked   third preferences.  Therefore, these  votes  will  go waste.    Total  value  of Balance  of  400 votes  at  1/8  value  will be  50.

(c)    The balance  votes  will be  distributed  as under.

(d)   On the  above  basis,  Candidate  No. “D”   will be  declared  as  Elected-III.

In this manner the counting will go on and the Candidates, who remain at the bottom stand eliminated and his Second Preference, Third Preference etc. keep transferring to the respective candidates.  In this process there are all chances that candidates at Serial No. 5 or 6 will receive (after transfer votes) total votes exceeding 2100.  Then such candidate is declared elected. Again, suppose, such declared candidate gets 2300 votes, then his excess 200 votes again will have to be transferred to the respective candidates against whom the different preferences are given.  Such transfer will be again calculated with weightage based on preferences given to the total surplus.  This is quite complicated calculation and lengthy and therefore, I am not giving further illustrations of eliminations and further candidates  elected.

It may so happen that in each count and process the candidate with least vote keep on getting eliminated and it may happen that after the elimination of 12^th candidate, candidate No. 10 and 11 may not reach the desired quota of 2100.  Even then they will be declared elected, namely; if candidate at 10^th position may received 2050 votes and candidate at 11^th position may receive 2000 votes, but as the candidate at last 12^th position eliminated (after all transfers) by receiving 1800 votes, then, as stated above, candidates at 10^th and 11^th position will be declared as elected though they have not completed their respective quota of 2100 votes.

The above will be more clear by giving my own example.  I first contested in the Central Council Elections held in December, 2000.  Total voting was approximate  11000 and quota was approximate 1180.  At the end of the first day when the complicated counting stopped at midnight I had received 951 votes and was at Serial No.10 out of total 16 Candidates.   The total number of candidates to be elected were 8 at that time.  Next day when the counting restarted, another candidate from Ahmedabad, who was at Sr.No.11 and who received 918 Votes got eliminated and from his ballot 550 second preference votes were transferred to me  and I therefore, totally received 1501 votes and jumped to position No.4 and declared elected.  So I got surplus than Quota of 1,180 and my 2^nd preference also got distributed to other candidates. If at that time voters from Ahmedabad had not voted for another candidate from Ahmedabad by giving second preference, then both the candidates from Ahmedabad would have lost and Gujarat would have remained unrepresented in Central Council which has never happened since 1951.

In the second election, which took place in 2003, total votes were 17355 and quota was 1928.  I received 1898 First Preference votes  as against required First Preference Quota of votes of 1928 in the very first counting, i.e. short of just 30 votes.  But when the third last candidate got eliminated 30 Votes from him were transferred to me. Prior to that in 2 Elimination I got just 5 and 2 second preference transferred to me and was short of Quota.  I completed the quota of 1928 on 3^rd Elimination and got elected.

And then came the historic election of December, 2006.  Hats off to Ahmedabad that there was no other candidate either from Ahmedabad or for that matter from Gujarat.  The total  number of vote was  19463 and quota was 1621 and I received almost 3000 First Preference Votes, which is still an all time record.  My surplus 1400 votes were substantially transferred to two candidates from Mumbai and to all other candidates including those who got eliminated very fast, and those who got elected.

The above proves how important it is to cast cautiously and diligently your First Preference votes and of course thereafter your second, third and other Preference votes.

The idea of giving my own example is neither to project oneself nor to suggest even remotely to vote on the basis of cast, creed or region, , but to allow you to appreciate the seriousness and importance of giving second, third and  so on further Preference votes to various deserving candidates from your Region..

IMPORTANT

1.     From the above, you will appreciate that it is extremely important to cast your votes sensibly and consciously.

2.    Every Chartered Accountant either in practice or in Industry, must exercise his/her voting right on the dates of polling.  For the convenience of Hon’ble Members now the voting time is increased to 12 hours i.e. from 8 AM to 8 PM, so while going to Office or while coming back from Office, there is sufficient time to vote.   Please exercise your vote preferably by making First Preference to the candidate, whom you think of the best choice,  but always give preferences  to  as many candidates and at least 11 preferences in the case of WIRC. We are known to be of noble and highly educated,  professionals,  still every year,  there are ballots with (a) or (x).  Please be careful that you must given preference by indicating 1, 2 etc. and not (a)or (x).

Elect a candidate you think is best from the points of view of integrity, honesty, knowledge and capability to contribute to the profession, one, who has time in participating in Council and Committee meetings;, one for whom you are confident that he will be serving this noble profession in the best interest, and not for the self interest.  LET THE BEST MAN WIN.

ELECTION CODE:

Members are aware that strict Election Code is prescribed which is hosted on Website.  Every candidate and Hon’ble members must ensure that all the candidates are adhering to this Code by letter and spirit.  If you find one violating the same, please do not hesitate to inform/complain to the Institute.  Don’t think that you are a complainant or an informer.  On the contrary you will be rendering a yeomen service to the profession for keeping our image flying high.

I adore my Profession

I Salute my Institute

I respect my Council  &

I am proud to be a Chartered Accountant

CA. SUNIL TALATI

Past President

ICAI-2007-