Congratulations to Peter Liddell and John Barron who were elected to be the new Party Treasurer and Nominating Officer respectively.  The detailed numbers on the votes cast can be seen at http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/vote/result/5/ and http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/vote/result/6/

Due to a glitch the polls closed earlier than planned.  However, I'm minded to call the results as they stood when the polls closed because both candidates won by comfortable margins.

One surprise was that the voting turnout was well down on the vote to ratify new appointments that occurred just a week ago.  The total number of votes cast in these internal elections was approximately half of the number cast for the ratification vote, although this was still sufficient to surpass a 10% threshold for a quorum of members.  It also took significantly longer for people to cast their votes ...

The poll to get your feedback on the party unconference is still open for a few more days.  We need to know what kind of party you think this is: do we hold national meetings like ordinary political parties, or do we exist only on the internet?  Let us know whether you want to attend the unconference by responding to the forum poll: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1083

Fellow Pirates, we are moving immediately to the first genuine internal elections for the party’s officers.  This follows the successful completion of the vote to ratify appointments to second-tier positions of responsibility (more on that below).  The vacant officer positions are Treasurer and Nominating Officer.  For the role of Treasurer, we have one nominee: Peter Liddell.  For Nominating Officer, there are two nominees: John Barron and Jeremy Morton.  As well as voting for the nominees, members also have the option to call for the reopening of nominations, or to abstain.  If any of the candidates gets a simple majority, they will be appointed.  If reopening of nominations gets the most votes in either election, there will be a fresh call for nominees and a re-run of that election.  Abstentions do not influence the result, but give members the opportunity to register their participation without expressing a preference.

As with ...

Thanks to the hard work of Rob Howson, we are in a position to share some plans for the party’s unconference.  It is an unconference, not a conference, because we are that kind of party – unconventional, undaunted, and, erm... un-ique.  Now all we need is some feedback to say if the plans are on the right lines.

The planned date is Saturday January 16th.  January is a good month because we need to avoid the Christmas season but we want to hold it before the general election.  Holding the unconference in January also allows us to use the unconference as an opportunity to hold hustings for the internal elections taking place at that time, as well as meeting and cross-examining the people who want to stand as prospective candidates in the general election.  The goal is hence to have every would-be parliamentary candidate and every would-be officer in attendance ...

The good news is that the first ‘trial’ of our members voting system already looks to have been a success. That trial is the current ratification vote to approve or reject the appointment of four second-tier positions of administrative responsibility, like Deputy Treasurer or Head of the Web Team. The voting system appears to be working correctly, and just as important, our members have been using it. A quarter of members have voted already, within just two days of the vote commencing. Many thanks to Tom and the team that implemented the system, and many thanks to those of you who have voted already. For those who have not voted already, the vote will remain open until the end of Sunday 29th November.

Given my confidence that the ‘trial’ will be a complete success, my mind turns to what comes next: the first genuine internal election where members will select ...