Voting opens as YesCymru members decide on whether to reform the independence campaign group
Voting has opened in YesCymru’s Extraordinary General Meeting where members will get the chance to vote on whether to adopt a new structure and constitution for the campaign group.
The vote will decide whether to accept the proposals of the Gweithgor, a working group set up in August amid concerns that YesCymru’s constitution and electoral processes needed to be updated for a movement with a membership of over 15,000.
All YesCymru members have received an email at 8am this morning taking them to a voting page. There will also be an opportunity to vote during the EGM itself on Saturday for those who don’t do so via email, with voting closing during the meeting.
It comes after a period of in-fighting within the movement which saw a vote of no confidence in the Central Committee, whose members collectively resigned from their posts shortly thereafter.
The Gweithgor working group was then set up from voluntary members of different YesCymru branches to look at the structure, finance, governance, procedures, groups and some wider policies such as social media.
The proposals have been criticised by some, with particular criticism of the fact that there is no means of ensuring equal gender representation or BAME representation on the new elected board of executive directors that would replace the Central Committee.
One member who contributed to the Gweithgor until October, Dyfrig Jones, wrote for Nation.Cymru that adopting the proposals would represent a “very serious wrong turn” for the movement.
However other members of the Gweithgor have defended the proposals, with Meic Pattison arguing that new bylaws will ensure that all regions electing Directors must encourage gender balance and a diverse slate of candidates
“The way forward is to embrace change, change for the better, and be part of the future, and I would urge all members to vote YES, to vote in favour of the proposed reforms,” he said.
YesCymru have said that an election will be called after the EGM, either for a new Central Committee under the old structure or a Board of Directors under a new structure.
“Names and information about the candidates will be announced early in the new year and the election will be held mid-January, voting will be open for a few days,” they said. “In the period between the announcement of candidates and the election we intend to organise hustings.”
The relevant Articles of Association can be seen here and a diagram of the new structure can be seen here.
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“3,346 members have registered to vote in the EGM “
I thought we were pushing 20,000 members?
Same as with the original AGM which started this, turnout wasn’t low because of a lack of online voting, it’s because people generally aren’t interested in AGM’s, EGMs and bureaucracy – they just want to show their support for indy.
The AGM had only hundreds in attendance. This is a much increased level of engagement. But I agree with the rest of your comment.
The previous AGM had 500 in attendance – the largest AGM ever.
Until this one!
largest of how many?
over 3,000 vs the previous numbers is a massive improvement, falling well within the acceptable bounds of representative voting within this sort of an organisation. Ymlaen,
I can see no reason to go with traditional ideas. Why should it matter about a person’s gender or the colour of their skin. We are all human.
When you look on the Eventrbrite, it shows only around 1000 tickets have gone.
Where did you get 3346 from, please?
On-line voting registration.
I have a right to a vote which I will not use because I don’t have the time or patience for internal politicking. I am not one of the 3,346 who have registered.
Voting only takes a few seconds once you’ve open the link. A simple yes or no.
That means that you are effectively opting out so have no right to moan if & when what you consider to be a right fruitcake secures a mandate.
Just stop the infighting and start fighting for a new wales 🏴 get out in your town’s and get the people out voting for new wales 🏴 and kick all English party’s out of wales 🏴 start fighting for your children and grandchildren future in wales 🏴