What happen if the number of council members determined for a term is greater than the number of candidates nominated for election?
At an AGM for an MCST, the Chairperson declared that the nomination for election to council be closed at the 8th candidate. An SP proposed that the number of council members for the new term to comprise 9 members. As there were only 8 candidates standing for election, where would that 9th candidate come from? The same SP replied that the 9th member be left to the incoming council to decide at a later date.
I replied:
Para 8(3) of BMSMA states that if the number of candidates is the same as, or fewer than, the number of members of the council decided on by the AGM, those candidates must be declared by the chairperson to be, and are taken to have been, elected as the members of the council.
Sect 54(3) of the Act also states that the council could only appoint a person to fill a vacancy in a council upon the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of the chairperson, secretary or treasurer or other member of the council.
Sect 53(4) further states that all the members of the council shall be elected at each annual general meeting of the MCST.
I added that if AGMs of that MCST has had in the past, resolved a bigger number of council members than the actual number of candidates that stood for election,that practice should stop.
That SP later withdrew his proposal for a 9-member team.
