Selection Jurisdiction
The Operational Working Group has responsibility for modifying the selection process, while the Society for Elections has the responsibility to support execution of it.
Constituency Societies have direct responsbility for selection in their area, unless there is overlap between two constituencies or the Society is ill-prepared to carry out those responsibilities. In either event, the City, or Regional Society for that area shall assume selection responsibilities.
Selection Frequency
Selection is mandatory and occurs for every seat contested by the Party at every election contested by Party candidates.
Selection Form Requirements
Selection application forms (HPSAF) must always meet certain minimum Party requirements. They must
- clearly bear the Party name and/or the Party logo, and clearly identify the authoritative Assembly governing the selection process in question. For example: Cardiff North Constituency Society must declare itself on all of its own forms
- bear the date of printing, the date upon which the form must be returned to the Assembly, and request the date of completion
- bear the Ethical Kernel, in full, and request agreement by the applicant that they will seek to adhere to the Four Principles if elected as a candidate for the Party, and make clear that failure to do so may result in mandatory reselection
- require the applicant to agree to follow Party Consensus if elected as a candidate for the Party, and make clear that failure to do so may result in mandatory reselection.
In addition, the forms must
- make clear that all forms will be read by Party volunteers in the Research Working Group, and others in their own Constituency, City, or Regional Society
- request the full name of the applicant (and where differing, both preferred name and legal name)
- request the date of birth of the applicant
- request at least one phone number for the applicant, preferably home and mobile, plus the primary address of the applicant
- request current employment of the applicant & history thereof
- request that the applicant prove either significant local links (as agreed by the relevant Constituency, City, or Regional Society) or residence in the appropriate area for an interval determined by that same Society
- request disclosure of public social media account names & platforms
- request disclosure of existence of private accounts, and explicit binding promise to retain privacy status of those accounts henceforth while an applicant, candidate, or once elected to office. It must further be made clear that breach RE private accounts could result in reselection.
Pathway: From Application to Candidacy
All applicants must apply via the appropriate local variant of the official Party selection form for the election in question (at any level the Party is contesting), and all forms must be received by the appropriate Assembly Secretary or Deputy.
All applicants must be Party Members.
Receipt may be digital or physical. Physical proxy submission is acceptable but should be verified such as but not only by voice call.
From receipt of form, clear chain of custody must be maintained regardless of the medium of receipt, and the responsibility for this record falls to each specific individual involved & the Assembly Secretary and any Deputy or Deputies.
Applicants must apply by the deadline established by their relevant Secretary, which cannot be beyond the final cutoff date determined centrally by the Society for Elections. This date must be clearly included in any advertisements regarding selection candidacy applications.
Applicant data is to be verified by the Research Working Group, with support from the relevant Constituency, City, or Regional Society.
Social media accounts are to be checked for hate speech, incitement to violence, abusive behaviour, and similar things which might impact the decisionmaking of the selecting Society.
Where such breaches are marginal or difficult to gauge, or broadly open to interpretation, or where the applicant has already or is willing to issue a clear & frank public apology when challenged, applications should not be immediately rejected but instead placed into a “reserve” status. The relevant Assembly in these cases should also pass the matter onto the Committee for Resolutions for any relevant disciplinary action.
Where such breaches are regarded as requiring escalation to disciplinary action at a Party level, it is strongly recommended that the application be immediately tossed, although in the case of exceptional candidates (such as again those willing to publicly address the issue with a full apology) these applicants may be placed into the “reserve” status. The relevant Assembly in these cases should also pass the matter onto the Committee for Resolutions for any relevant disciplinary action.
Where such breaches should be reported to relevant authorities, the application should both be immediately rejected, and information passed on as ethically required. The relevant Assembly in these cases should also pass the matter onto the Committee for Resolutions for any relevant disciplinary action.
Private social media accounts are not to be checked – either openly or surreptitiously. All workers are workers.
The Research Working Group will, having collated the required information (making applicants rejected, reserved, or passed), pass its files back to the various Constituency, City, and Regional Societies, ideally digitally.
Should a Constituency Society and its Regional and/or City Society lack the required organisational capacity to handle selection, the Society for Elections is expected to support or carry out those duties.
All relevant Societies participating in selection should produce an Interview For Applicants Form (HPIFAF) for each kind of election being contested; the Society for Elections will each cycle produce a base template for Societies to work from.
The HPIFAF should be a series of interview questions decided by the individual Societies. These can be as long or as short as the Societies desire.
These questions must avoid in any way inciting, supporting, or calling for
- hate speech
- inciteful or aggressive speech
- risk creating undue negative discrimination
- endorse or perpetuate stereotypes
and Societies should use to the best of their collective abilities rational discretion to avoid racism, ableism, homomisia, transmisia, antisemitism, and other forms of bigotry, stereotyping, or stigmatisation.
It is for individual Assemblies initially to determine whether these lines, or others of concern, are breached. If individual members of those Assemblies disagree with consensus, they may escalate to request ajudication by the Society for Elections, and, from there, escalate in turn to adjudication by the Secretaries of Resolution, should they be in office. Where they are not yet in office, contended questions will necessarily be excluded from forms until ajudication is complete.
The HPIFAF can be received either digitally or physically. Physical proxy submission is acceptable.
The HPIFAF deadline should, in 2021, be at least 6 weeks before the relevant election date. From 2022, this will rise to 20 weeks, and this line should be edited accordingly in that year; at that time a deadline for the application forms themselves will also be determined.
Once the deadline arrives, HPIFAF forms are to be published to the Party Membership, locally.
Where there is only one applicant, local members are free to raise objections. Where these carry (by standard decisionmaking methods), the applicant will be disqualified.
Where there are more applicants than potential seats, STAR ballots should be arranged by the appropriate Society Secretary or Secretaries. These ballots should take place no more than 1 week after IFAF forms are submitted. Objections to any of these applicants should be raised as part of the electoral process.
Only Members may vote in STAR ballots on Harmony Party UK candidacy.
The deadline for objections is also 1 week for 2021. This should be reevaluated from 2022 onwards.
Where there are no objections, the applicant is approved by the Consensus of the Membership.
When an applicant wins a STAR ballot for candidacy, the applicant is approved by the Consensus of the Membership.
Where there are no applicants or all others have been disqualified, the relevant Assemblies are free to consider “reserve” applicants. Standard decisionmaking can be used to determine whether this is an acceptable – and ethical – course of action or not. Where approved, the applicant is approved by the Consensus of the Membership.
Rejected applicants must be contacted & informed respectfully and politely, but there is no requirement to inform them of reasoning. Instead, they should be informed that no-one is informed of the reasoning for rejection as this is a private matter for the Members.
Applicants whom are approved by the Consensus of the Membership immediately become Official Party Candidates.