Election of GIJN Board — 2016

The Current GIJN Board

Results from 2016 Election
Board Election Rules (Bylaws)
Candidates for Board of Directors

This June, the membership of the Global Investigative Journalism Network will vote to elect members of the GIJN Board of Directors. The board consists of 15 members. Of these, seven seats are now up for election — all for a period of two years.

These are the board members whose seats are now up for election:

Regional: Umar Cheema (Asia), Anton Harber (Africa), and Margo Smit (Europe)

At-Large: Carlos Eduardo Huertas, Oleg Khomenok, Nils Mulvad, and Bruce Shapiro

The election committee, consisting of board members Brant Houston, Marina Walker Guevara, and Paul Radu, will accept nominations of board candidates until May 15, 2016. 

Board Election Rules

To be eligible to run, candidates must belong to a GIJN member organization and their candidacy must have the support of that organization. Candidates are required to send to GIJN staff a photo, a short bio (300 words or less), and a statement about why they want to join the GIJN board (500 words or less). Candidate bios and statements will be publicly posted. 

One board-member position is reserved for a representative of the host organization for the next global conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

GIJN divides board members into the following regions and two election groups:

Group 1: North America, Latin America/Caribbean, Middle East/North Africa.

Group 2: Europe, Asia/Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa.

This year we will vote on the regional members from Group 2 and four at-large board-members.

For the three regions in Group 2, voters will choose one member to represent that region. Voting will be open only to members based in that region, and members can vote for only one candidate.

If only one candidate, or no candidates, run for the board in that region, no election will be held for that region. If only one is running, he or she will be elected. If two or more candidates get equal votes, the election committee will decide by flipping a coin.

Representatives of the full GIJN membership are entitled to vote for election of the four at-large members. Here each membership organization can vote for a maximum of 4 board-members.

If an individual has already been elected as a regional representative, he or she shall be removed from the list of elected at large representatives. Similarly, if an individual’s election would mean one region exceeds the allowable amount of four at-large representatives, he or she shall be removed from the list of at-large representatives.

The four candidates with the most votes are elected, unless it will conflict with the two rules mentioned above. If there is a tie in the voting, the decision will be made by the election committee flipping a coin.

The board member for the organization hosting the next global conference does not count in the calculation on maximum five members in the board from one region.

If there are more candidates than seats, we will hold an election using electronic voting. Voting will open 8:00 am CEST, June 10, 2016 and end on 11:59 pm CEST, June 16, 2016. The voters are the designated representatives of GIJN member organizations. Each organization receives one vote.

John Bones of SKUP, who is not on the board, will oversee the voting process, with the assistance of the GIJN staff. The GIJN Board Election Committee will certify the results.

The results of the electronic voting will be announced following completion, tabulation, and certification of the vote. Immediately after, the new board members will replace the previous members.