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AIDE MEMOIRE

Election of the members of the Management Board of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development

(Document prepared by the Department of Legal Services)

I. INTRODUCTION

At the Fifty-seventh Regular Meeting of the Permanent Executive Committee of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CEPCIDI), held on December 13, 1999, the Department of Legal Services of the General Secretariat was asked to prepare a document examining the mandate contained in resolution AG/RES. 3 (XXVI-E/99) and the Statutes of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD) regarding the election of the members of the IACD's Management Board. The Chair of CEPCIDI has also requested the Department to prepare draft Rules of Procedure for this election. The objective of this document is to respond to these requests.

II. BACKGROUND AND CONSIDERATIONS

A. Organ responsible for electing the members of the Management Board 

Pursuant to Article 7, paragraphs 1 and 2, of the IACD Statutes, the members of the Management Board shall be elected annually by CIDI at the Regular Meeting of CIDI. However, as a transitory measure designed to avoid delaying the first election of the Board's members, the special General Assembly, in operative paragraph 3 of resolution AG/RES. 3 (XXVI-E/99), resolves:

To authorize, on an exceptional basis, that the first election of the IACD Management Board be held at a special meeting of CEPCIDI, in accordance with the procedures that CEPCIDI establishes for this election.

CEPCIDI is therefore charged with holding the first election of the members of the Management Board and establishing the pertinent procedures.

B. Members of the Board

Pursuant to Article 7, paragraph 1 of the IACD Statutes, the Management Board shall consist of nine member states of the Organization. When the election has been held, pursuant to paragraph 3 of the same Article, each member state elected to the Management Board "shall designate an official representative who preferably shall have recognized experience and expertise in matters pertaining to cooperation and development programs and related activities. Such Member State may also designate Management Board alternate representatives and advisors." Under paragraph 4 of Article 7, the Chair of CEPCIDI shall serve ex officio as a non-voting member of the Management Board.

C. Term of office

Article 7, paragraph 2 of the IACD Statutes provides that the members of the Management Board shall serve for a term of two years. However, it provides that at the first election, as a one-time exception, four of the nine members shall be elected to serve for only one year.

D. Geographic representation

Article 7 of the IACD Statutes provides that the Board shall consist of members elected by CIDI:

… observing, in accordance with the provisions of Article 77 of the Charter, the criteria of rotation and equitable geographic representation and guaranteeing that no Member State shall be excluded from the opportunity for election to the Board and that every region shall have the opportunity to be at all times represented.

During the negotiations of this provision, the countries rejected proposals to set forth in the Statute a formula or method to achieve the objective of geographic representation and of observing the guarantee established in Article 7. Some delegations considered that it was not necessary to have a formula or method because, through "political agreements" among themselves, the criterion of geographic representation established in Article 77 of the Charter for elections of chairs of Permanent Council Committees and of members of other committees of the Organization that do not include representatives of all member states has always been observed. Therefore, in order to comply with the requirements of Article 7 of the IACD Statutes, particularly that "every region shall have the opportunity to be at all times represented," it would be advisable for delegations of member states to reach political agreements before presenting the respective candidacies.

E. Background to formulation of a procedure for the first election

As mentioned above, the General Assembly instructed CEPCIDI to determine the procedure for the first election of the nine members of the IACD Management Board. Neither the CIDI Statutes nor Rules of Procedure, nor the Rules of Procedure of CEPCIDI, contain detailed or special provisions for the holding of elections. However, it should be noted that Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure of CEPCIDI provides that decisions shall be taken by the majority vote of the member states, except as otherwise provided in these Rules of Procedure, that is, by a minimum of 18 votes. / Article 24, paragraph 3, of the CEPCIDI Rules of Procedure also provides that votes shall be by secret ballot only in the case of elections. However, "if CEPCIDI so agrees" it may adopt a different procedure." /

The Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly offer some criteria and models that may be useful in designing a procedure for electing the IACD Management Board. In this connection, Article 75 / and Appendix III are pertinent.

Article 75: When two or more elected posts are to be filled at the same time and under the same conditions, the candidates obtaining the vote of a majority of the members states on the first ballot shall be declared elected. If the number of candidates obtaining such a majority is less than the number of persons or members to be elected, there shall be additional ballots to fill the remaining posts, the voting being limited to the candidates who have received the most votes on the previous ballot in such a way that the number of candidates will not be more than twice the number of posts remaining to be filled.

Appendix III of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly contains the "Procedure for electing three members of the Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI) in the case of normal expiration of their terms of office," which is annexed to this aide-memoire as additional information. To summarize Appendix III, the procedure established therein to elect the members of the CJI is based on Article 75 (formerly 82) of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly. Appendix III provides that the member states shall mark on the list of candidates a number of votes equal to the number of posts to be filled. The candidates who have received the largest number of votes shall be declared elected, provided that they have obtained the votes of at least an absolute majority of the member states. If all posts are not filled on the first ballot because the number of candidates obtaining an absolute majority is less than the number of posts to be filled, additional ballots shall be taken. In the subsequent ballots, the number of candidates shall not be more than twice the number of posts remaining to be filled. Thus, candidates are eliminated in order of least votes obtained in the immediately preceding ballot until the number of candidates elected is equal to the number of posts to be filled. In the event that there is a tie, as many ballots as may be necessary shall be taken in order to settle the tie.

Recently, the Inter-American Committee on Ports adopted for the election of the fifteen members of its Executive Board the same procedure set forth in Appendix III of the Rules of Procedures of the General Assembly that is used for the Juridical Committee. / The Directing Council of the Inter-American Children's Institute has used the same procedure to elect the slate of three presented to the Secretary General for consideration in the process of appointing the Director General of the Institute.

Article 63 of the Regulations of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, establishes the same procedure as that of Article 75 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly, but adds an additional article to provide for the case of a tie:

Article 64: In case of a tie among two or more candidates or Member States, as the case may be, who have received at least the required majority, if the number of places to be filled is less than the number of candidates or Member States who have received the same number of votes, another ballot shall be taken. If the tie is not broken in this second ballot, the elections shall be decided by lot.

There are also precedents in rules and regulations of the Organization for elections to the same offices, except those governing term of office. For example, the rules of procedure adopted for the first election of the members of the Audit Review Committee (ARC) of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture established that the terms of office of elected candidates would be decided by lot. 

III. DRAFT RULES OF PROCEDURE

We consider that the procedure used for the Inter-American Juridical Committee is the most appropriate model for the procedure for electing the IACD Management Board. Below are draft rules of procedure based on this model, presented to CEPCIDI for its consideration and possible adoption.

Rules of Procedure for the first election of the members of the IACD Management Board

1. CEPCIDI shall set and announce, no less than two weeks in advance, the date on which the election is to be held.

2. During December 1999 and January 2000, any interested State shall present its candidacy in a letter addressed to the Executive Secretary for Integral Development, and the Secretariat shall distribute the list of candidate States to the delegations for their consideration.

3. Before proceeding to the voting, the Secretariat shall distribute, in the conference room, the list of the candidate States, following the Spanish alphabetical order of the names of the candidate States, and the Chair shall appoint two representatives as tellers.

4. Each delegation may mark on the list of candidates a number of candidates equal to the number of posts to be filled, which, on the first ballot, shall be nine.

5. The ballots shall be deposited in the ballot box, which the Secretariat shall circulate.

6. The tellers shall declare void any ballots that are signed, any in which the intent of the voter cannot be clearly ascertained, and any on which more than nine candidates have been marked.

7. Pursuant to Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure of CEPCIDI, candidates shall be declared elected who have obtained the largest number of votes, provided they have obtained the votes of at least an absolute majority of the member states, that is, 18 votes.
8. If the nine members are not elected on the first ballot, as many additional ballots shall be taken as may be necessary in order to elect the remaining members. For these ballots, the number of candidates shall not be more than twice the number of posts remaining to be filled and only the candidates who have obtained the largest number of votes on the immediately preceding ballot, without obtaining the required absolute majority (18) shall be candidates. In the event of a tie among the candidates such that the number of candidates is more than twice the number of posts remaining to be filled, a vote shall first be taken to break the tie, for the sole purpose of reducing the number of candidates to no more than twice the number of posts remaining to be filled.

9. If two or more candidates have obtained the same number of votes, with the majority required for election, and their number is greater than the number of posts remaining to be filled, as many additional ballots as may be necessary shall be taken in order to settle the tie.

10. The Chair shall announce the number of votes obtained by each candidate immediately after each ballot.

11. When all members have been selected, the Technical Secretariat, with the supervision of the tellers, shall place nine slips of paper in the ballot box, each with the name of one of the elected Board members. The Chair of CEPCIDI shall remove five slips of paper, one at a time. The members of the Board whose names appear on the five slips of paper taken out of the ballot box shall serve for a two-year term of office. The others shall serve for one-year terms. The Chair shall announce the names of the Board members whose names appear on the five slips of paper removed first from the ballot box.

APPENDIX
PROCEDURE FOR ELECTING THREE MEMBERS OF THE INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE IN THE CASE OF THE NORMAL EXPIRATION
OF THEIR TERMS OF OFFICE

1. The General Secretariat shall prepare and distribute a list containing the names of the candidates presented by the governments of the member states, following the names of the proposing states in Spanish alphabetical order.

2. Before proceeding to the voting, the president shall designate two representatives as tellers.

3. The delegations shall mark on the list of candidates the names of those persons they are voting for, but may not vote for more than three candidates.

4. The ballots shall be deposited in the ballot box, which the Secretariat shall circulate.

5. The tellers shall declare void any ballots that are signed, any in which the intent of the voter cannot be clearly ascertained, and any on which more than three candidates have been marked.

6. In accordance with Article 80 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly, those candidates who have received the largest number of votes shall be declared elected, provided that they have obtained the votes of at least an absolute majority of the member states.

7. If the three members are not elected on the first ballot, as many additional ballots shall be taken as may be necessary in order to elect the remaining members. For these ballots the number of candidates shall not be more than twice the number of posts remaining to be filled and only the candidates who have obtained the largest number of votes on the immediately preceding ballot, without obtaining the required absolute majority, shall be candidates. In the event that there is a tie among the candidates such that the number of candidates is more than twice the number of posts remaining to be filled, a vote shall first be taken to break the tie, for the sole purpose of reducing the number of candidates to no more than twice the number of posts remaining to be filled.

8. If two or more candidates have obtained the same number of votes, with the majority required for election, and their number is greater than the number of posts remaining to be filled, as many additional ballots as may be necessary shall be taken in order to settle the tie.

9. Since there cannot be more than one member of any one nationality on the Inter-American Juridical Committee, if two candidates of the same nationality should obtain the required majority and the same number of votes, a vote shall be taken to break the tie.