May I give more detail of the candidates as it could be more material than I had thought ?

Question

The two candidates for chairman for the ensuing year were respectively the councillor who took the chair and ran the election, using the casting vote to win, and the former chairman who had vacated the chair but remained a councillor and willing candidate. Does this additional information affect the previous answer, please ? I did not see the successful candidate sign any undertaking as to service as chairman and wonder if this affects the validity of decisions taken subsequently at the same meeting.

 

Thankyou very much for favour of your further advice.

Longworth

Answer 1

On the face of it, the setup for the meeting looks wrong.  At the start of a new council year, the annual meeting of the council is held.

When the meeting starts, it should be chaired by the previous year's chairman, or failing that, the previous year's vice chairman.  The meeting proceeds swiftly to the election of a new chairman (who could be the past year's chairman) at which point, the newly elected chairman takes over the meeting, first signing the declaration of acceptance of office.

So it's not clear on what basis a councillor who is not the past chairman came to conduct the election of the new chairman, in the presence of the past chairman.