Young Greens Guide to the 2020 Green Party Internal Elections
Time Until Voting Opens
This summer, the Green Party are holding internal elections. These include biannual leadership elections, to choose our leaders and deputy leaders, elections to the Green Party Executive (GPEx), elections to Policy Development Committee, and elections to choose a nominee to be the next Green member of the House of Lords.
Young greens events
Through the election, we'll be making sure Young Greens have the chance to hear from candidates and question them on matters important to us.
Young Greens-only hustings for the leadership elections will be held:
- Candidates for leader – 21/07, from 8pm. Sign up here.
- Candidates for deputy leader – 28/07, from 8pm. Sign up here.
We'll also be asking candidates in the House of Lords list elections to set out how they'd represent young people and students in Parliament at their own hustings:
- Candidates for the House of Lords list – 31/07, from 8pm. Sign up here.
We asked all the candidates for GPEx 5 questions about youth and student issues, how they plan to work with the Young Greens, and biscuits. Read there responses here.
Timeline
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Noms open
1st of June, 10 am -
Noms close
30th of June, 12 pm -
Campaign period
1st of July – 2nd of August Young Greens hustings:
Candidates for leader – 21/07, from 8pm
Candidates for deputy leader – 28/07, from 8pm
Candidates for House of Lords list – 31/07, from 8pm
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Voting opens
3rd of August, 10 am Members will be emailed information on how to vote by the Green Party.
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Voting closes
31st of August, 10 pm -
Results announced
Date TBC
WHo's being elected, and how can I get involved?
We particularly encourage Young Greens to stand in these elections to help ensure that our governing bodies are diverse and include young voices. If you're interested in standing, all the details, including the rules and instructions on getting on the ballot paper, are available on the Green Party member's site.
If you're thinking of standing and want advice or information from people who have experience on GPEx, contact our co-chairs Tom and Rosie – their details are here.
There are four sets of elections taking place:
Leadership elections
First, we're electing a new leadership team. Leadership elections take place every two years, the last being in 2018, when the current team of co-leaders Sîan Berry and Jonathan Bartley, and deputy Amelia Womack was elected.
Green Party leadership elections differ from most other parties in that we can either elect two co-leaders (who run together) and one deputy leader, or one leader and two deputy leaders (who don't need to run together). For example, in 2014 Greens elected as leader Natalie Bennett and as deputies Amelia Womack and Shahar Ali.
There are also gender balancing rules to ensure diversity. A co-leader team must be of different genders, and if co-leaders are elected the deputy can be any gender. If one leader is elected, the two deputy leaders must be different genders.
Members standing for leadership roles need 20 nominators.
Green Party Executive elections
Second, we're electing a new batch of co-ordinators to GPEx, the Party's executive committee. According to the Party:
GPEx is made up of elected representatives and exists to ensure the decisions of Conference are carried out; to ensure the proper use of expenditure and raising of funds to support the work of the Party; to ensure that the Political Strategy is implemented; and to act as employer of staff and line manage the CEO through the Chair.
The role of elected members is to champion a particular area of business, working with Green Party staff, to deliver on agreed objectives and to account back to the Party membership on the outcomes.
Read more about GPEx in this document.
There are 17 voting members of GPEx: 13 directly elected co-ordinators are joined by 4 ex-officio members: the (co-)leader(s) (one vote between them if they are co-leaders), the deputy leader(s) (one vote between them if there are two), the Wales leader, and the Young Greens co-chairs (one vote between them).
GPEx co-ordinators are elected in halves for two years (6 one year, 7 the next). This year, there are 7 being elected for two year terms, plus an additional 2 being elected for one year terms because the previous holder of that post resigned. The roles being elected this year are:
Chair
Campaigns Co-ordinator
Elections Co-ordinator
External Communications Co-ordinator
Management Co-ordinator
International Co-ordinator
Policy Development Co-ordinator (1 year term)
Publications Co-ordinator (1 year term)
Trade Union Liaison Officer
Role descriptions for each post can be viewed here.
Members standing for GPEx need 10 nominators and, unless GPRC give them special permission, must have been in the party for 2 years.
Policy Development committee elections
Third, there are elections to PDC, which has 5 elected members (plus GPEx's Policy Development co-ordinator, who convenes PDC). The role of PDC is to ensure 'that motions brought to conference are the best they can be', for example by accrediting motions. They also can make minor updates to our list of policies, Policies for a Sustainable Society (PSS), and (with GPRC) allow the Party's Political Committee to make urgent additions to PSS between conferences.
PDC's role is quite technical, and you can read more about their duties in the Party's constitution.
Members standing for PDC need 2 nominators.
House of Lords list ranking
Finally, we'll be voting to create an ordered list of candidates for the House of Lords. If the Greens are offered another peerage, the person at the top of the list will join Natalie Bennett and Jenny Jones in the upper chamber, and a new list will be voted on.
Nominations for this election has already closed, having taken place last year.