YesCymru urge members to vote again on proposals to reform campaign group after technical problems

YesCymru have asked members to vote again today on whether to adopt a new structure and constitution for the campaign group after technical errors meant that voting had to be suspended and voided yesterday.

Voting had opened yesterday at the pro-independence group’s Extraordinary General Meeting on whether to make changes to its constitution adopt a new structure.

However, YesCymru said yesterday evening that it voided all the votes cast at that point because of “syncing issues” between its software and the new independent voting system.

They have now re-opened the vote and said that members should have received a new email this morning with a link to be able to cast their ballot. Members who had not received the link were asked to check their spam folders.

The time to vote has now been extended beyond today’s EGM meeting to 12pm noon tomorrow, Sunday 12th December.

YesCymru said they “apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience”.

“All members will have received a link to vote from OpaVote voting software today,” they said. “If you can’t find your link, please check your spam folder before contacting us.

“Every member who wants to do so will need to cast a vote – even if you voted yesterday.”

‘Embrace change’

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.

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.

Speaking at the EGM, Peter Morgan Barnes, who chaired YesCymru’s Gweithgor who came up with the proposals, said that “unity” was at the core of the changes.

However 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.