1)         The eligible voter list for Kashmir Overseas Association (KOA) elections will be provided by the secretary of KOA to National Election Committee (NEC) Chair, Autar Mattoo with a copy to respective zonal directors of KOA as soon as possible but no later than November 5, 2007. This list will include names of persons/families with whom correspondence will be done using e-mail and/or postal mail services. The KOA zonal directors will independently verify and finalize this voter list for their respective zones and forward it to NEC Chair by November 10.

2)         The NEC will invite nominations for the KOA Zonal Directors whose positions need to be filled as per KOA secretary’s announcements.

3)         After the nomination process is complete and the candidates have accepted their nominations, the Zonal Director candidates will be sent voter lists for the respective zones for which elections are being held. The contesting candidates may use their representatives to contact membership at large. In that case, the candidates should identify to NEC their representatives who may contact the membership at large via e-mails, telephone calls or postal mailings by November 25, 2007.

4)         If any KOA member/voter does not want to be contacted by telephone, the contesting candidate or their representative shall not contact such a person. The voters who do not want to be contacted by telephone calls should inform NEC by e-mailing autarmattoo@yahoo.com.

5)         All the election-related materials will be posted by NEC only, on different zones or forums. The incumbent zonal directors shall not misuse the information system to further their candidacy.

6)         The contesting candidates shall not contact NEC by phone during the election process. All communications will be via e-mail.

7)         As successfully carried out during the 2005 and 2006 KOA elections, the 2007 KOA elections will be held using an electronic/web based system because of: its simplicity, ease of counting ballots, little chances of vote tampering, and significantly reduced cost encumbered compared to paper balloting.

8)         Those dues-paid members (for the year 2007) who do not have e-mail IDs or who cannot or do not wish to use electronic system for balloting will be allowed to send in their ballots by postal mail. The paper ballots will be mailed to eligible voters by NEC. Paper ballots will be signed by at least two NEC members before being mailed to the voters and votes will be considered eligible only when the NEC signatures on the returning ballots will be confirmed by the NEC members who had signed the ballots.

9)         The contesting candidates or their representatives shall not indulge in trash talk, mud slinging, innuendos or insulting personal attacks or any such activity that would be considered detrimental by NEC to our goal of ensuring an honest and upright election with equal opportunity for all candidates to express their positions and views in an environment of decency and good will.

10)       If any candidate violates this procedure in any way, the NEC may declare such candidate in violation of this procedure and disqualify such a candidate from the upcoming elections.       

NEC 2007

Autar Mattoo (Chair)  Hira Nakhasi (Member)  Sujata Qasba (Member)