ERS comments on RCVS elections
Reassurances have been offered by Electoral Reform Services (ERS), the independent body responsible for carrying out the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' (RCVS) Council election, that the election was fair in nature and that "no firm evidence of fraud" was found in spite of multiple instances of voters receiving duplicate ballot papers.
The precise numbers of voters who received duplicate ballot papers is not currently known, although an investigation at the mailing house contracted by the RCVS detected a shortfall of 289 papers. Instances of multiple votes being received from a single IP address were also reviewed and it has been concluded that it is not possible to determine if instances of dual voting in this format had taken place. However, it has been confirmed that the ultimate results of the election would not change if incidents where duplicate voting has been suspected were to be removed from the final count.
A letter from ERS Senior Consultant Adrian Wilkins to Acting Registrar of the RCVS Gordon Hockey said that “Our view is… that although a number of members were sent two ballot papers, there is no firm evidence of fraud, and that the result is an accurate reflection of the views of the members of the Royal College. Our recommendation is consequently that the result should be declared as per our election report of 30th April 2012.”
The full text of Mr Wilkins' letter to Mr Hockey can be found here.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
