Here you find the rules in connection to carry out elections at AAU.

Election rules at Aalborg University

Here you will find the regulations for campaign material concerning AAU Elections regarding displaying campaign posters and distributing campaign material.

You will find the regulations here. 

In the case of elections to an academic council, department council, board of studies or PhD committee, it may generally be decided that a representation area division shall be used, which means that an election group's seats in the body are reserved for specific groups of staff or students. The decision may concern one, several or all of the relevant electoral groups, where the division may take place for each electoral group separately. For example, for a board of studies with 5 seats within election group 3 (students), it can be decided that 1 seat is reserved for students in Esbjerg, 1 seat for students in Copenhagen and 3 seats for students in Aalborg.

Before a decision is taken on the use of the division of representation areas in the elections to a body, the body must be consulted on this. The decision on the division of representation areas is made in relation to academic councils by the rector (on the recommendation of the dean/director), in relation to department committees by the head of department, and in relation to boards of studies and PhD committees by the dean.

A division of representation areas must be based on objective, unambiguous and delimited criteria that must not prevent a person entitled to vote for the body and that are manageable in practice. Thus, see further below, the Election Committee will, as a general rule, reject a division that does not comply with these requirements or that is otherwise considered inappropriate.

In addition, it is important to note that a division of representation areas may result in unfilled seats, as an unfilled seat cannot subsequently be transferred to another representation area with surplus candidates – not even if it becomes necessary to call an alternate during the election period and no one can be found.

REJECTION OF A DESIRED REPRESENTATION AREA DIVISION

As a general rule, the election committee will reject a desired representation area division for an election group in the election to a body if the criteria for the division do not meet the following requirements:

• Objectivity, including in relation to the purpose of the University Act for holding elections
• Unambiguity, including definability
• Inclusion of all persons entitled to vote within the electoral group in question
• Manageability, including in terms of both data quality and consumption of resources

RE 1) OBJECTIVITY

A division of representation areas must be based on objective criteria that take into account the purpose of the University Act for holding elections. This essentially means that any division can generally only be made on the basis of academic criteria or on the basis of campus affiliation (Aalborg, Esbjerg, Copenhagen), that criteria of an academic nature must not be based on job title (e.g. employed PhD students and other academic staff members), and that the criteria used must not lead to the choice being considered largely a foregone conclusion. The latter has the consequence that the criteria may not be set in such a way that a representation area has very few eligible voters (1-5 people).

RE 2) UNAMBIGUITY

A representation area division must be made on the basis of criteria that are unambiguous and delimitable, so that all persons entitled to vote can be granted the right to vote in a particular area without further ado.

RE 3) INCLUSION OF ALL PERSONS ENTITLED TO VOTE WITHIN THE ELECTORAL GROUP

The right to vote for a body follows from the University Act, the statutes and the election rules in general. A division of representation areas can thus be used to distribute persons entitled to vote in different areas, but not to deprive persons entitled to vote in a body at all.

As a result of the above, a division of representation areas must be made on the basis of criteria that include all persons entitled to vote within the electoral group in question, and it should therefore be sought that when establishing a division, inspiration is found in the conditions of the right to vote, so that no person entitled to vote is inadvertently prevented from exercising his or her right to vote for the body.

The requirement that the criteria for the division must cover all persons entitled to vote entails in particular the following:

Elections to department committees may not be divided into study board representation areas for academic staff members:

• For academic staff (election group 1), the right to vote is conditional on employment at the department – not on affiliation with a specific board of studies. A division of representation areas of, for example, 2-3 boards of studies will therefore exclude academic staff who are entitled to vote for academic staff who have chosen to exercise their right to vote for boards of studies other than 'the usual ones'
• For students (election group 3), the right to vote is conditional on affiliation to a specific board of studies or a specific programme/field of study. As a result, a division of representation areas for this electoral group must actually be based on boards of studies

As a general rule, elections to boards of studies may not be divided into departmental representation areas:

• For academic staff (election group 1), the right to vote is conditional on teaching within the study board's area – not on employment at a specific department. A division of representation areas into, for example, 2-3 departments will therefore exclude persons entitled to vote from other departments that have had teaching within the area of the board of studies.
• For students (election group 3), the right to vote for a department committee is conditional on affiliation to a specific board of studies or a specific programme/field of study. A division of representation areas based on departments is therefore also discouraged for students.

Elections to PhD committees may not be divided into departmental representation areas for academic staff members:

• For academic staff (election group 1), the right to vote is conditional on the person in question holding a function as either main supervisor for a PhD student under the PhD School or as head of a programme under the PhD School – not by affiliation with a specific department. A division of representation areas at the departments of the main academic area will therefore exclude academic staff entitled to vote who are employed at other departments but who nevertheless meet the conditions for the right to vote.
• For PhD students (election group 4), it must be discouraged to use representation area division due to the low number of seats.

RE 4) MANAGEABILITY

A division of representation areas must be based on criteria that can actually form the basis for the allocation of the right to vote without the use of an unnecessary amount of resources. As a starting point, there must therefore be available data regarding the criteria, and it must be possible to validate the right to vote for both employees and students.

The final result of the election is calculated by the Election Committee according to the D'hondtske Method.

Read examples of calculations according to the D'honske Method.

The election rules stipulate the following in connection to campaigning for elections and providing assistance:

• Candidates must act in a fair and decent manner when acting as candidates
• Students and employees may not participate in breaches of the election rules nor participate in violating the secrecy of the given votes.
• Students may only use mailing lists of the University (local lists and general mailing lists) if this has been approved by the Election Committee.

Aalborg University's statutes contain information about the governing bodies for which elections are held at Aalborg University. The statutes describe who can set up the various bodies, what the tasks consist of, and how the different types of councils and boards are to be composed.

Statutes for the self-governing institution Aalborg University

It follows from The University Act that the universities are obliged to hold elections for the governing bodies.

The University Act (in Danish only) 

Complaints, objections and applications must be submitted to The Election Secretariat at the deadlines specified in the time schedule. It is important that the deadlines are met, since the Election Committee only rarely and in very particular cases grants an exemption.

A complaint, objection or application concerning the election may be submitted in writing or orally and should contain information that identifies:

who has submitted the complaint, objection or application what the complaint, objection or application concerns why the complaint, objection or application has been submitted (the grounds).

Contact The Election Secretariat at email: 

valgsekretariatet@adm.aau.dk