(* Translator’s note: Words importing the masculine include the feminine, and unless the context otherwise requires, words in the singular include the plural, and words in the plural include the singular.)
Under sections 27 (1) (b) and 33 (2) (c) of Act No. 111/1998 Sb., to regulate higher education institutions and to change and amend other laws (“the Higher Education Act”), the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University has adopted the following Code of Electoral Procedure for the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University as its internal regulation:
The Academic Senate of the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University (“the Senate”) consists of 15 members who are elected in direct and secret ballot by the academic community of the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University (“the Faculty”). Nine members are elected from among the members of the academic staff by the members of the academic staff alone and six members are elected from among students by students alone.
The term of office of the members of the academic staff is three years and a third of this membership is re-elected every year. The term of office of students is two years and half of this membership is re-elected every year.
Elections to the Senate take place no later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of the Senate members.
The elections are called by the Senate no later than 60 days before the expiration of the term of office of the Senate members. Should the Senate fail to do so, the elections are called by the Dean after the expiration of this period.
Based on the resolution of the Senate, elections are held either using electronic means or in paper form. The requirements under the Higher Education Act must be fulfilled. At the same time, a document is published specifying the technical details of organisation, course, and ensuring of such elections.
The resolution to call elections states the mode and dates of holding elections as well as the beginning of the term of office of the Senate members to be elected. The specific dates of the elections are stipulated by the Senate so that they span no fewer than two and no more than four consecutive days. If the elections are held in paper form, the resolution to call elections also specifies the location or locations where the elections will be held, as well as the dates for holding the elections, which must fall on days when classes are taught at the Faculty and which must enable voting in each stipulated location every day for no fewer than four hours.
The resolution to call elections is published without undue delay in the publicly accessible section of the Faculty website. The details under paragraph 4 must be published in the publicly accessible section of the Faculty website no later than 21 days before the first day of the elections.
For the purposes of the organisation of the elections of Senate members, the Senate establishes an electoral commission (“the commission”) with parity representation of the members of the academic staff and students of the Faculty.
The chair of the commission, the members of the commission, and the substitutes for commission members are elected by the Senate upon the proposal of the Board of the Senate.
If a member of the commission consents to being a candidate in the elections, his membership in the commission terminates. Membership in the commission also terminates upon resignation of the member, or upon termination of the membership in the academic community of the Faculty. A substitute is immediately called to fill the vacancy to maintain parity representation on the commission.
The Dean’s Office of the Faculty prepares a list of voters no later than 10 days before the first day of the elections and hands it over to the electoral commission and the President of the Senate. The list of voters contains the following:
| a. |
The list of students who are members of the academic community of the Faculty as of the day of preparation of the list; |
| b. |
The list of members of the academic staff who are members of the academic community of the Faculty as of the day of preparation of the list. |
The commission accepts and publishes the proposals for candidates and the platforms of the candidates, and ensures the course of elections.
If elections are held by electronic means the commission ensures, via the Dean’s Office of the Faculty, the technical conditions for the course of elections, in particular the entering of the electoral registers and the lists of candidates by electoral curia into the electoral application and the sending of the information on holding the elections and the mode of the elections, including a link to the electoral application and the user guide, to all qualified voters to their registered email addresses. If elections are held in paper form, the commission ensures in particular the ballot boxes and their sealing, voting booths and the printing of ballot papers, where the data on the ballot paper must be provided in a way that prevents the possibility of mistaking one candidate for another candidate.
A member of the academic staff or a student who is a member of the academic community may be proposed as a candidate for Senate membership.
Every member of the academic community may propose candidates.
The proposals must be submitted to the electoral commission no later than one week before the first day of elections. It is not possible to take into account any proposals submitted after that time.
The person proposed must accept the candidacy either on paper or electronically.
If the proposal does not include the consent of the candidate proposed, the electoral commission immediately requests the candidate’s consent.
If by the expiration of the time limit under paragraph 3 above the number of proposed members of the academic staff is fewer than six and the number of proposed students is fewer than six, the commission draws lots to reach this number of candidates.
In the case of members of the academic staff, drawing lots is carried out from among all members of the academic staff of the Faculty who are the members of academic community of the Faculty, with the exception of the candidates already proposed, persons holding an office which is incompatible with membership of the Senate, and Senate members whose term of office does not expire after the elections.
In the case of students, drawing lots is carried out from among all students of the Faculty, with the exception of candidates already proposed and the members of the Senate whose term of office does not expire after the elections.
The commission immediately requests the persons selected by drawing lots to give their opinion on the candidacy. Only such persons who accept the candidacy within 72 hours of sending the request become candidates.
If after drawing lots there are fewer than six candidates from among the academics who accepted the candidacy and fewer than six candidates from among the students who accepted the candidacy, the lots are drawn again. After repeated drawing of lots, the time limit for accepting candidacy is shortened to 24 hours. In the repeated drawing of lots the persons who were already selected in the previous draw are excluded in addition to those listed above.
Using the proposed candidates and those selected by drawing lots, the commission creates a separate list of candidates from among the members of the academic staff and a list of student candidates; the candidates are listed in the sequence drawn by the commission. The lists of candidates are immediately published by the commission in the publicly accessible section of the Faculty website.
If the elections are held by electronic means, the electoral application must ensure the secrecy of the ballot and must contain the list of all candidates of the curia to which the relevant voter is qualified to vote. The electoral application also must enable anonymised saving of the voting. The voter logs into the electoral application via the Charles University Central Authentication Service. The electoral application enables the voter unambiguous marking of the selected candidates and ensures that the voter will not be allowed to vote for more candidates than can be elected in the given curia.
If the elections are held in paper form, the polling stations or other premises designated and identified for voting purposes must be equipped with the ballot box, a sufficient number of ballot papers, pens, and a voting booth that enables a secret ballot. During the elections at least two members of the commission must be present all the time in the polling station or other premises designated for voting. The voter proves his identity to the members of the commission and confirms receipt of the ballot paper for the relevant curia by signing the electoral register. If elections are held in paper form, the voter goes to the voting booth and circles the sequence numbers of candidates on the ballot paper. He may circle the sequence numbers of no more than a number of candidates corresponding to the number of senators to be elected in the given curia. The voter inserts the ballot paper with circled sequence numbers into the ballot box. The ballot paper is invalid if no sequence numbers of candidates are circled, the sequence numbers or names of candidates are crossed, additional names of candidates are added, more candidates’ numbers are circled than the number of senators to be elected in the given curia, or if the ballot paper is modified in any other way.
Immediately after the expiration of the time determined for voting the commission counts the votes and creates a report on the course and results of the elections which is signed by the members of the commission and published in the publicly accessible section of the Faculty website within 24 hours of the termination of voting.
Three members of the Senate from among the academics whose term of office expired will be replaced by three candidates who received the highest number of votes in elections to the given curia. If any of the candidates receive an equal number of votes, the commission decides on the sequence of candidates by drawing lots and records the fact in the report on the course and results of the elections.
Three members of the Senate from among the students whose term of office expired will be replaced by three candidates who received the highest number of votes in elections to the given curia. If any of the candidates receive equal number of votes the commission decides on the sequence of candidates by drawing lots and records the fact in the report on the course and results of the elections.
The candidates who were not elected and received at least 25% of the votes of the candidate in the given curia who received the highest number of votes become substitutes. The sequence of substitutes is determined based on the number of votes received, if any of the candidates receive an equal number of votes, the commission decides on the sequence of candidates by drawing lots and records the fact in the report on the course and results of the elections.
A voter may file a complaint against the preparation, course, and results of the elections with the commission no later than within seven days of the date of publication of the election results. The complaint must be in writing and must include the reasons for the complaint. The commission examines the complaint and the validity of the election within 14 days of the date on which it received the complaint. If the commission finds that a gross mistake occurred which could have affected the results of the elections in terms of the elected members, it decides on the invalidity and re-doing of the elections.
The performance of an office which is incompatible with membership in the Senate under the Higher Education Act or the Faculty Constitution constitutes an impediment to membership in the Senate and is a reason for termination of membership in the Senate.
If the membership of a Senate member terminates, the remainder of the term of office in the Senate is served by a substitute from the list of substitutes of the same elections in which the member of the Senate whose membership terminated was elected in the sequence under Article 5 (6). The substitute is called to the Senate by the President of the Senate. The substitute has a right to refuse membership in the Senate in writing; in such case the next substitute in sequence is called.
A member of the Senate who was elected as a student, completed the study of the bachelor’s programme and applied at the same Faculty for a post-bachelor programme of study, or completed a master’s programme of study and applied at the same Faculty for a doctoral programme of study, may state in writing that he intends to continue exercising his senator’s mandate after admission to study. The statement must be delivered to the President of the Senate within seven days of the date of completion of study. In such case he will be called to the Senate after enrolment or a substitute will be called to the Senate after the decision on non-admission of the applicant becomes legally effective, however no later than after four months of the date of delivery of the statement.
In the event that the membership of a Senate member terminates and it is not possible to call a substitute, the Senate calls by-elections. If membership of multiple Senate members terminates with different dates of expiration of term of office, the by-elections for vacancies are held separately.
The candidate who succeeds in the by-elections performs the office until the end of the term of office of the Senate member whose mandate terminated.
Other provisions of the Code of Electoral Procedure apply to by-elections with the necessary modifications.
If the elections are invalidated, the electoral commission immediately calls for elections to be re-done. The time limits under Article 2 (1), (2), (4) and (5) are not binding on holding re-do elections.
The term of office of the Senate members elected in re-done elections ends on the day when the term of office of members elected in regular elections would have expired.
Other provisions of the Code of Electoral Procedure apply to by-elections with the necessary modifications.
The Code of Electoral Procedure for the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University approved by the Academic Senate of Charles University on 23 June 2017 is hereby repealed.
This Code was approved by the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University on 17 June 2021.
This Code comes into force on the date of approval by the Academic Senate of Charles University.1
This Code becomes effective on the first day following the date of approval by the Academic Senate of Charles University.
doc. Dr. phil. Pavel Himl
předseda AS FHS UK
Ing. arch. Mgr. Marie Pětová, Ph.D.
děkan FHS UK
prof. Ing. František Zahálka, Ph.D.
předseda AS UK
| 1 |
Under s. 9 (1) (b) (ii) of Act No. 111/1998 Sb., to regulate higher education institutions and to change and amend other laws (the Higher Education Act) the Academic Senate of Charles University approved this internal regulation of the Faculty on 25 June 2021. |
Charles University
Faculty of Humanities
Pátkova 2137/5
182 00 Praha 8 - Libeň
Czech Republic
