Executive Committee Elections 2023-24

In 2024, six members of our Executive Committee (EC) will conclude their term of service. To maintain gender parity on the board, we are holding two simultaneous elections to select three women and three men to fill these positions. The elections follow three consecutive stages: nominations, endorsements, and the final ballot.

For more information about the electoral process, please contact our Membership team in the first instance. Alternatively, for a first-hand account of life on the EC, please contact currently serving members directly.

About

The ECPR Executive Committee (EC) is a 12-member board that has overarching responsibility for the long-term strategic development of ECPR. As a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), ECPR’s Executive Committee members are also the trustees of the charity.

The EC members are elected for six-year terms, and these are staggered, with elections occurring every three years when six of the twelve members of the Committee are replaced. The Chair of the Executive Committee is elected by the members of the EC from among their members.

Members of the EC are highly respected professionals within the discipline, eager to contribute their ideas, time, and energy to developing European political science. The EC membership is not an honorary post. It comes with work, responsibility and travel. But it is also an important distinction to be part of Europe’s premier political science organisation with all the internationalism, professionalism and dynamism the ECPR has come to stand for.

Service on the EC means taking on responsibility for one or more of ECPR’s different areas of work through membership of Sub-Committees. It is an opportunity to put your mark on how these activities are run and how they can be improved, working closely with both the ECPR Director, Tanja Munro, as well as portfolio pairings with ECPR’s operational teams located at the Head Office in Colchester.

The new Chair, upon commencement of their term, allocates the portfolios after discussions with all EC members. Plenary meetings of the EC generally take place twice a year – in the spring at Harbour House and at the General Conference around September time. Sub-Committee meetings take place throughout the year as workload demands and ahead of each plenary EC meeting, normally online.

Throughout its history, ECPR has strived to maintain a regional balance within its EC, representative of its membership; candidates from all Full ECPR Member institutions are therefore encouraged to run for office.

ECPR is committed to ensuring the representation of both women and men throughout all its activities and events and at its highest levels of governance. To this end, two elections are run in parallel, one with only female and one with only male candidates. Voters will choose their candidate(s) from each, resulting in three male and female candidates making up the six-member strong incoming cohort of the EC.

Current Executive Committee

Members

The members of the Executive Committee whose terms are due to expire are:

Giliberto Capano, Bologna University
David Farrell, University College Dublin
Hana Kubátová, Charles University
Petra Meier, University of Antwerp
Thomas Saalfeld, University of Bamberg
Sabine Saurugger, Sciences Po Grenoble

The Members of the Executive Committee whose term has not expired, and who will continue to serve on the Executive Committee are:

Ladislav Cabada, Metropolitan University of Prague
Christian Haerpfer, University of Vienna
Daniela Irrera, University of Catania
Anne Rasmussen, University of Copenhagen
Amy Verdun, University of Victoria

Chair-Designate

The Chair of the Executive Committee for the 2024–27 period will be elected as ‘Chair-designate’ in the coming months. They will work with the current Chair, David Farrell, during this transition period until the official handover at Harbour House between 10–12 April 2024, with the new Executive Committee taking office on 1 May 2024.

Eligibility criteria

Any individual from any Full ECPR Member institution can nominate themselves to stand for election to the Executive Committee.

To be eligible, candidates must be affiliates of a Full Member institution at the time of taking office; have obtained a PhD or equivalent expertise; be at least 16 years old; and not disqualified to serve as a trustee by virtue of Section 178-180 of the UK Charities Act 2011.

Voting: Only Official Representatives from Full Member institutions may endorse nominations and vote in the final ballot.

Associate Members can apply to upgrade to Full Member status, to afford them full voting and standing rights. Please contact our Membership team for more information.

The election process

The procedure for electing members of the ECPR Executive Committee will involve three successive stages: nominations, endorsements, and final ballot. Each stage is organised electronically via the My ECPR area on the website. Those wishing to take part in any of the stages, therefore, must have a My ECPR account.

All three stages are carried out under the supervision of the Speaker of the ECPR Council, Thomas Poguntke in his capacity as Senior Returning Officer.

Each of the three stages is announced at least one week in advance of the starting date on the ECPR website, and by email to all Official Representatives of full-member institutions.

Nominations

16 October – 17 November 2023

Nominations must come from the candidates themselves; candidates may add a portrait photo and statement of up to 500 words, covering basic biographical information, as well as their motivation for standing for election. Nominees shall be listed in the order in which they posted their nominations on the website.

Endorsements

4 December 2023 – 5 January 2024

During the endorsement stage, Official Representatives (OR) from Full Member institutions are invited to endorse up to three candidates from the list of nominees within each election, i.e., three female and three male candidates.

For inclusion on the final ballot, a nominee must:

Receive at least five endorsements;
Have endorsements from ORs of Full Member institutions in at least two countries; and
Have endorsements from one female and one male OR of Full Member institutions.

All endorsements will be visible to Official Representatives within the My ECPR section of the website.

Final Ballot

22 January – 23 February 2024

Those receiving sufficient endorsements will go through to the final ballot where ORs from Full Member institutions will be invited to vote.

The electoral system to be used is Single Transferable Vote (Scottish variant). Official Representatives will be asked to rank order their preferred candidates. The minimum number of candidates to be rank ordered for a vote to be valid is one; there is no maximum. Pursuant to the STV method, preference votes will be tallied and transferred until all vacancies are either filled or until preferences are exhausted (at which point any remaining vacancies will be awarded to those candidates with the highest vote tallies).

Results

Candidates are declared elected as soon as the Senior Returning Officer has certified the results. Following certification, all candidates are informed of the results by the Senior Returning Officer. If the results are not challenged within a week of the candidates having been informed, they are final and are made public on the ECPR website.

The six newly elected EC members will take office on May 1, 2024 and will join the EC at its Spring meeting as part of the handover procedures.

Key dates

16
Oct 2023

Nominations open

17
Nov 2023

Nominations close

4
Dec 2023

Endorsements open

5
Jan 2024

Endorsements close

22
Jan 2024

Ballot opens

23
Feb 2024

Ballot closes

Early
Mar 2024

Results announced

1
May 2024

New EC members take office

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