2018 Government Steering Committee Elections

To access past OGP Steering Committee Elections results, please click here.

Results of the 2018 Steering Committee Elections

In 2018, four seats became vacant in the OGP Steering Committee (SC), with Indonesia rotating off after serving two consecutive terms, and Chile, France, Romania finishing their current terms. A call for candidacy statements for the 2018 elections was launched by the Support Unit on January 26 and remained open until March 12.

Four governments -Argentina, France, Nigeria and Romania- submitted their candidacy to join the SC in 2018, with France and Romania running for a second consecutive term. Letters of intent from each candidate can be found in the table below. As outlined in the Articles of Governance, the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL) reviewed the list of candidates, and resolved to endorse the four candidates who will serve 3-year terms beginning in 2018. The new SC members will be invited to join the July SC meetings as observers in Tbilisi, Georgia, before they officially begin their SC terms on October 1.

Steering Committee Co-Chairmanship Election

The leadership body of the Steering Committee – the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL) – is comprised of a revolving four-member co-chairmanship team which is elected by the entire SC for two-year terms. The GL includes a lead chair and a support (or incoming) chair from government and civil society. The support chairs assume the role of lead chairs during their second year, when new support chairs are elected. 

All SC members, including newly elected, may run for SC Co-Chairmanship elections in 2018. Should there be more than one candidate, voting by secret ballot will take place in person at the SC meeting during the Georgia Global Summit in mid July. Candidates that receive the most number of votes will be elected.

SC members who are interested in running should submit a letter of candidacy responding to the following guiding questions to jaime.mercado@opengovpartnership.org. The deadline for candidates to submit candidacy statements is June 15.

Co-chair government candidacy statement guiding questions – Revised May 2018

1. What priorities will your government drive during its OGP chairmanship to advance OGP goals?
2. How will your government demonstrate leadership of OGP at the international level during your chairmanship, and what actions can it take to foster a more cohesive leadership body within the Steering Committee?
3. How do you plan to further advance your domestic open government agenda and lead by example during your chairmanship role? 
4. Which Ministry will lead your OGP chairmanship (if different from current OGP Ministry)? How do you envision the role and involvement of other government bodies, including your head of state/government, foreign ministry and diplomatic networks, and other ministries to advance your OGP priorities and promote OGP globally? 

2018 Steering Committee Elections

The Steering Committee (SC) government elections will take place in the first half of 2018. The information below presents the criteria to run for SC membership, and the timeline for the election process for government SC members and rotation of the SC co-chairs.

Four SC government seats will open in 2018 as the terms of Chile, France, Indonesia and Romania end. Indonesia has served two terms already and is not eligible to stand for election again. Chile, France and Romania are allowed to run for reelection for a second term. If they wish to run for the SC then they should follow the candidacy process and meet the eligibility criteria outlined below.

Criteria to Run for SC Election:

As per the September 2017 SC decision, governments who wish to run for SC election must have the following:

1. Improved or maintained their eligibility score since submitting a letter of intent to join OGP;
2. Published all OGP required documents (action plans, self-assessment reports, etc.) within four months of the agreed deadlines;
3. Acted in accordance with the Open Government Declaration;
4. Acted in accordance with OGP process for the most recent completed NAP cycle;
5. Meet the minimum OGP Participation and Co-creation Standards;  

In addition to the above requirements, current SC members running for reelection must have the following:

1. Provided financial support to OGP (except in cases of extreme financial hardship); and
2. Attended and participated actively in SC meetings and subcommittee meetings, with ministerial level participation in the required meetings.

Per the Articles of Governance, the Steering Committee will review and approve the list of candidates before voting begins.

Regional Balance

Per the Articles of Governance, the SC should be comprised of a minimum of one and a maximum of four governments from each of the four regions (Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe). All OGP participating governments⁴ participate in the election of all government SC members. Each participating government has one vote⁵. If there are insufficient candidates from each region to meet the regional quotas then the government with the next highest number of votes will join the SC, regardless of region. Governments unsure of their regional classification can consult this page at the UN Statistics Division for clarification: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm.

Process to submit candidacy

Eligible governments must submit a letter of candidacy addressed to the four OGP co-chairs (see here) and should include details of the government candidate, its track record in open government related issues, a statement of intent on how it plans to contribute to OGP’s leadership, what strengths it would bring to the SC, and the time it is able to devote to the work of OGP. The deadline for submissions is March 12, 2018. Please submit letters to jaime.mercado@opengovpartnership.org

SC Co-Chairmanship Election and Rotation

All SC members, including newly elected, may run for SC Co-Chairmanship elections. SC members who are interested in running for co-chairs should submit a letter of candidacy outlining their proposed agendas should they be elected. As per the timeline below, the deadline for candidates to submit candidacy statements will be June 15. For the 2018 co-chair rotation, voting by secret ballot will take place in person at the SC meetings during the Georgia Global Summit in mid July. Candidates that receive the most number of votes will be elected.

Timeline for the 2018 Elections and Rotation:

Voting procedure and scoring

As with previous years, all governments will be sent a complete list of candidate governments in advance of the voting period (by email), and will have four weeks to complete their ballot online.  Governments must rank their preferred candidates from first to last, but do not need to rank all options. The elections process is administered by an independent company, Everyone Counts.  Ballots are secret and will not be published or shared. The Support Unit only receives the final results.

The scoring system for this election is called Borda in which each voter ranks their preferences. For the example illustrated below, where there are 6 candidates, the top-ranked candidate gets 6 points, the second place gets 5 points, third place gets 4 points, and so on for as many candidates as the voter ranks.

Example for illustration purposes only:

If the voter chooses to only rank the top three candidates in the same order, Candidate A would still get 6 points, Candidate B gets 5, and Candidate C gets 4. Candidates D-F would not get any points from that particular voter. Once the election closes, all points are added up and the candidate with the most points gets elected (after accounting for the regional balance mechanism).

If there is a tie between two candidates, the tie will be broken by determining which candidate received the majority of first-place votes. For example, if two candidates were both awarded 320 points, but one candidate got 15 first-place votes and the other got 14, the one with 15 first-place votes will win.

If you have questions, please contact Jaime Mercado (jaime.mercado@opengovpartnership.org) or your Support Unit contact.