THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, SRI LANKA

Our Ref: IESL/ES/Gen/010 05th June 2019

RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS

1. The CEO/Executive Secretary, while informing the Council the appropriate timing to hold the
election giving due consideration to both By-Laws of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka
(IESL) and its annual calendar, shall request the Council for the appointment of a Chief
Returning Officer and two or more Assistant Returning Officers.

2. After the CEO/Executive Secretary informs the appropriate timing, the Council in accordance
with By-Law 54 shall appoint a Past President or a Fellow as the Chief Returning Officer and
two or more Corporate Members as the Assistant Returning Officers for the purpose of
conducting the election. They shall conduct the election with the assistance of the IESL
Secretariat.

3. As Per By-law 52(a), the list of Corporate Members whose names extracted from the updated
‘Roll’ maintained under By-Law 2(ii)a, as at 04.00 p.m. on 31st March shall be eligible for
voting in the Elections to the next Council. The list of such Corporate Members (hereinafter
called and referred to as the ‘voters’) shall be made available for reference at the Institution
immediately after this date. Any appeal for the correction of voters list shall be submitted to
the Secretary giving valid reasons in writing within 15 days after the publication of voters list.
The Secretary shall after due consideration to the reasons brought forth and after obtaining
the approval of the Council finalize the voters list on or before 01st May.

4. As per By-Law 52(b), a member who has been found guilty of improper conduct by the
Council, shall not be eligible to contest any post or sit in the Council, and the Candidates are
required to make a mandatory declaration in their Nomination Form stating that they have
never been proved guilty of such conduct.

5. As per By-law 52(b), a Corporate member who is qualified and eligible for the election for a
particular post in the Council, may seek election to one post only at an Election.

6. A candidate who is a continuing member for the next Session of the Council, but wishes to
contest a different post in the next Council, shall inform the CEO/Executive Secretary in
writing of his or her resignation from the relevant post at the end of the present session of the
Council. This letter shall be received on or before the date on which nominations will be
opened.

7. As per By-Laws, the CEO/Executive Secretary shall call nominations for the different posts
vacant in the Council. The Nomination Paper shall be submitted in a sealed envelope marked
‘NOMINATION PAPER’ on its top left hand corner and deposit it in the Nomination Box kept
for that purpose at the Secretariat. No Candidate who has submitted one nomination paper
shall submit another nomination paper for another post, unless the previous nomination
paper is withdrawn in writing, before the time fixed for the closing of nominations. In the
nomination paper, only the information required should be filled up. Candidates or the
Proposers should not make any additional endorsements. As per By-law 52(b), eligibility
criteria for nominations shall have been fulfilled by the candidate at the time of closing
nominations for the Election.

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8. The CEO/Executive Secretary shall submit a report to the Returning Officers on the
nominations received. It shall be the duty of the CEO/Executive Secretary to check the
eligibility of each candidate for the post nominated, but the responsibility shall be with the
Chief Returning Officer. The Returning Officers shall satisfy themselves as to the validity of
the nominations received by the CEO/Executive Secretary.

9. Nomination Form together with the Bio-Data and Election Statement shall be furnished by
each Candidate in the formats approved by the Council. The nominations that have been
submitted deviating from the prescribed formats shall be rejected by the Chief Returning
Officer whose decision shall be final. A passport size photograph of the Candidate should be
furnished along with the Bio-Data and this will be printed if provided, and included with the
voting papers along with the Bio-Data. The Candidate shall take full responsibility for the
correctness & accuracy of the Bio-Data furnished by making a declaration to that effect in the
bio data form. The Candidate’s Election Statement should not exceed 200 words as
otherwise the Chief Returning Officer will reserve the right to delete all part of the statement
after first (01st) two hundreds (200) words to make it fall within 200 words.

10. If any member eligible for voting wishes to raise an objection on eligibility to any nominations,
he/she shall submit such objection in writing to CEO/Executive Secretary within 01 week of
closing nominations. The candidate will be given an opportunity to defend him/herself.
Depending on nature of allegation, an inquiry will be held by a three member committee
appointed by the President and such inquiry will have to be completed within a period of one
week. The final decision pertaining to candidacy will be made by Chief Returning Officer in
consultation of the council.

11. The names of candidates for a particular post shall be given in an alphabetical order on the
Voting Paper or Ballot. The Voting Papers shall be signed by the Chief Returning Officer and
by at least two (2) of the Assistant Returning Officers. The Voting Papers shall be printed on
Security Paper and shall carry the signature or the authenticated seal of the Chief Returning
Officer.

12. For the Posts of President - Elect, Past President, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer
and Chairmen of Sectional Committees, if there are two (2) or more candidates and in case
of Post of Vice President when there are four (4) or more candidates, the voting shall be on a
system of preferential voting.

13. In respect of Representative Members, the voting paper or ballot shall contain two separate
sub-groups for members under 40 category and members over 40 category. Votes received
for each sub-group shall be counted separately.

14. Voting Procedure: The option of voting either by electronic or paper will be offered to each
eligible voter. The voters may select the most convenient way of voting for themselves.
Voters may choose only one option or both options of voting either through electronic ballot
or paper ballot. E Voting Facility will be granted to all Members except the Members who
requested only Manual voting. Manual Voting Facility will be granted to all Members except
those who requested only E Voting. The closing time of poll shall be indicated in the ballot.

15. Voting procedure for voters opted for electronic voting:

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16. Voting procedure for voters opted for paper voting:
The Chief Returning Officer and the Assistant Returning Officers shall check the ballots and
other documents that will be sent out to members who opted for the paper voting as well as
for the members who do not indicate their preference for voting method. They will be
responsible for the correctness thereof. Three envelopes are to be used in the conduct of the
paper Ballot.

 Envelope “A”, carrying a serial number and marked VOTING PAPER in large letters for
enclosing the Voting Paper securely. The serial number on the Envelope ‘A’ to be
verified against the list of Voters. Envelope “A” shall not be opened immediately after
noting down the serial number as otherwise the confidentiality of the voting paper will be
lost.

 Envelope “B”, large enough to enclose Envelope “A” conveniently and the name of the
Chief Returning Officer together with the address of the Institution for returning the
Voting Paper. Immediately after closing of the ballot, the serial numbers on envelope “A”
will be recorded and ballot box will be sealed again. All the serial numbers will be sent to
the e-voting Service Provider. Service provider, upon receipt of this information shall
remove the e-votes received by him from the same voter, if there are any. Counting of
the paper ballots will be resumed on the following day. Final result which is the
summation of all paper votes and e-votes will be released by CRO.

 Envelope “C”, for dispatching the Voting Paper, the list giving names of the members
who have nominated the different Candidates, the Bio-Data of the Candidates and the 2
envelopes ‘A’ and ‘B’.

 Each Voting paper will contain a distinct access code for each Voter. Voters may either
deposit their voting paper in the ballot box available at the Institution before the closing
time of the poll or send by post to reach the Institution before the closing time of the poll.
A Voting Paper received by the Chief Returning Officer without Envelopes “A” and “B”
shall be considered as an invalid Voting Paper and shall be rejected by the Chief
Returning Officer.

17. No Member shall vote for more candidates in each group than as prescribed in the paper
ballot / electronic ballot.

18. The Chief Returning Officer and the Assistant Returning Officers are to personally supervise
the procedure adopted in dispatching the Voting Paper.

19. The CEO/Executive Secretary shall be responsible for posting Voting Papers to all members
eligible to vote.

20. The officer sorting out daily mail shall hand over the voting paper received under sealed
cover and addressed to the Chief Returning Officer, to the CEO/Executive Secretary or a
Deputy Executive Secretary who shall then deposit them personally in the Ballot Box kept for
that purpose at the Secretariat. In case the CEO/Executive Secretary or a Deputy Executive
Secretary is not available, CRO/ARO shall assist in the sorting out of letters. A daily record of
such receipts as well as that of undelivered envelopes containing Voting Papers which may
be returned by the Postal Department shall be maintained by the officer sorting out mails with
those records endorsed by the CEO/Executive Secretary, a Deputy Executive Secretary or
one of the Returning Officers as the case may be. A Ballot Box shall be provided in the

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 Institution office.

21. The candidates or their representatives who have been duly nominated by the candidates in
writing could, if they so wish, be present at:

(a) the initial closing and sealing of the empty Ballot Box on the day Voting Papers are
first issued or posted.
(b) the closing and sealing of the Ballot Box at the end of the poll.
(c) the count.

Council Members who are not candidates may be present at any of the above occasions. The
CEO/Executive Secretary shall duly inform the candidates, the scheduled date and time of
the events (a), (b) and (c) mentioned above.

22. The counting of received Votes may be done through an electronic counting system or
manually. The count shall commence within three (3) days of the closure of the poll, unless
the Council decides otherwise and once started it should continue without any interruption.
In the case of duplication of votes, the paper vote takes the precedence and if any paper vote
is rejected, the Electronic vote will not be taken in to consideration.

23. The Chief Returning Officer shall announce the results of the poll after the count and post the
results on the Notice Board. He/ she shall report to the Council on the conduct of the poll and
the results of the election.

24. The CEO/Executive Secretary shall send the results of the election to all Candidates within
one week of the count, and to all members within one month of the count.

25. The Returning Officers and the staff of the Institution shall neither take an active part in
sponsoring candidates nor act in any way that could be construed as being partial to any
Candidate.

26. The resignations given by candidates prior to the Annual General Meeting (withdrawing from
contest or withdrawing after the conduct of the elections) shall be tabled before the Council at
the time of receipt of such resignation, for acceptance. Such acceptance shall be notified to
the candidate.

27. The candidates are strongly discouraged from canvassing for votes or soliciting the vote of
any member.

28. Impersonation in voting (i.e. a person exercising the voting right of other voter with or without
the consent of the voter) is a misconduct and shall be prohibited. Any form of provocation of
members, behaving in a manner that disturbs members, intimidation of members, violation of
privacy of members or any form of defamation are strictly prohibited.

29. The decisions made by the Chief Returning Officer on the conduct of the elections shall be
final.

Eng. Neil Abeysekera

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