Report on the 2021 ECPR Executive Committee Election Results

From 15 October 2020 to 15 February 2021, the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) conducted a three-stage process to elect new members to the organization’s Executive Committee.

The elections were carried out following procedures for online elections adopted by the Executive Committee in 2014 and provisions set out in the ECPR’s Constitution adopted in 2016 (clause 14). The elections were carried out electronically via the MyECPR section of the website and using the OpenSTV version 2.0.0. software. Following the Constitution, the Speaker of the ECPR Council, Thomas Poguntke, served as Senior Returning Officer to ensure proper oversight of the election.

The election was to fill six seats on the 12-member Executive Committee, all vacancies were caused by the following members having served their full statutory term of office: Kris Deschouwer, Mary Farrell, Maurizio Carbone, Reuven Hazan, Petri Koikkalainen and Anna Sroka.

As set out in the Gender Equality Plan 2019 and in line with the ECPR’s broader mission to improve diversity and inclusivity within the profession, this election was designed to create greater gender parity on the Committee. To do so, two concurrent elections were run – one for women candidates and one for men.

Nominations

The first phase of the election – candidate nominations – took place from 15 October to 15 November 2020. The call for nominations was broadly publicised throughout the ECPR networks and community in advance of the stage opening and throughout the period.

At the conclusion of this period six nominations were received in the female election and four nominations in the male.

Female candidates

• Margarita Gomez-Reino, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia - UNED Madrid
• Daniela Irrera, Universita di Catania
• Stella Ladi, Queen Mary, University of London
• Anne Rasmussen, University of Copenhagen
• Jane Suiter, Dublin City University
• Amy Verdun, University of Leiden

Male candidates

• David Bright, Flinders University
• Ladislav Cabada, Metropolitan University Prague
• Christian Haerpfer, University of Vienna
• Gianluca Passarelli, Sapienza University of Rome

All candidates met the criteria for eligibility as set out in both the ECPR’s Constitution and as required by the UK Charity Commission. A total of ten candidates were therefore progressed to the next stage of the election.

Endorsements

The second phase of the election, endorsements, took place from 1 December 2020 to 1 January 2021. All Official Representatives of full-member institutions were asked to endorse nominees for the final electoral ballot.

Of the 297 Official Representatives eligible to participate in this phase of the election a total of 119 did so: 89 endorsed candidates in the male election and 116 in the female. According to the election guidelines, all endorsements were visible to ORs and candidates (if they were not also ORs) during this period of the election.

At the conclusion of the endorsement period, all candidates had received the required number of endorsements to be carried forward to the next stage. The final ballot therefore comprised:

Female candidates

• Margarita Gomez-Reino, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia -UNED Madrid
• Daniela Irrera, Universita di Catania
• Stella Ladi, Queen Mary, University of London
• Anne Rasmussen, University of Copenhagen
• Jane Suiter, Dublin City University
• Amy Verdun, University of Leiden

Male candidates

• David Bright, Flinders University
• Ladislav Cabada, Metropolitan University Prague
• Christian Haerpfer, University of Vienna
• Gianluca Passarelli, Sapienza University of Rome

Voting

The final voting phase of the election took place from January 15 to February 15 2021. 297 eligible Official Representatives were invited to cast votes in both the female ballot and male ballot but were not obliged to vote in both. 150 ORs voted in the female ballot and 98 in the male ballot; with 153 and 129 ballots cast in each respectively. All the votes were declared valid.

At the conclusion of this period the votes as recorded on the ECPR website were calculated using the programme OpenSTV and processed according to the Scottish variant of STV.

Those elected to the Executive Committee (in alphabetical order) are:

• Ladislav Cabada, Metropolitan University Prague
• Christian Haerpfer, University of Vienna
• Daniela Irrera, Universita di Catania
• Gianluca Passarelli, Sapienza University of Rome
• Anne Rasmussen, University of Copenhagen
• Amy Verdun, University of Leiden

Not elected (in alphabetical order) are:

• David Bright, Flinders University
• Margarita Gomez-Reino, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia -UNED Madrid
• Stella Ladi, Queen Mary, University of London
• Jane Suiter, Dublin City University

Results

All candidates were notified on 18 February 2021 providing a week for all to accept the results; by the 25 February all had done so.

At all three stages of the election, the results were certified by the Speaker of the ECPR Council, Thomas Poguntke, as correct.