Translation of the Notice of Student Parliament Elections 2024

The Student Election Committee (StWA) of the University of Potsdam announces the elections to the student parliament for the 2024/2025 legislature in accordance with § 68 of the “Brandenburgisches Hochschulgesetz” of 9th April 2024, GVBl. I/24 [No. 12] in conjunction with the Statutes of the student body of the University of Potsdam of 13th July 2005 in the version of 7th November 2017 (AmBek UP Nr. 12/2018, pages 664-675) and the “Rahmenwahlordnung der Studierendenschaft der Universität Potsdam” of 6th December 2005 in the version of 6th February 2018 (AmBek UP Nr. 01/2019, pages 14-19).

Contact to the StWA: Unless otherwise stated, the StWA can only be contacted via email to stwa@lists.astaup.de from an email address of the University of Potsdam.

I. Central Dates

• Submission of nominations: by 21st May 2024, 12:00 (noon)

• Election days: 18th to 20th June 2024, each from 09:30 to 16:30

• Participation by postal vote: Application online required by 13th June 2024. See section VI. Postal Vote.

II. Committee Members to Be Elected

For the student parliament 27 members are to be elected according to § 10 (1) of the Statutes of the Student Body. The term of office begins with the constitution of the student parliament and lasts one year. It ends with the constitution of the following student parliament.

III. Polling Stations, Eligibility & Entitlement to Vote

The eligible voters can vote in the following polling stations:

• Faculty of Law, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Digital Engineering Faculty: Campus Griebnitzsee, House 6, Foyer

• Faculty of Human Sciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences: Campus Golm, House 18 (IKMZ)

• Faculty of Philosophy, central postal voting office: Campus Am Neuen Palais, House 8, Auditorium Maximum (Foyer)

• The Faculty of Health Sciences participates by postal voting in each of the three polling stations.

In addition, postal voting is possible in accordance with § 18 of the “Rahmenwahlordnung der Studierendenschaft” (RWO). Further information on this in section VI. Postal Vote.

All enrolled students at the University of Potsdam are entitled to vote and eligible in accordance with § 6 (1) and § 7 (1) RWO. Persons entitled to vote may only vote if they are listed in the electoral register. This is the university's register of enrolled students, according to § 13 (1) of the RWO.

The electoral register shall be available until 14th May 2024 at the Central Election Office. Objections to this register can be submitted informally to the StWA by 14th May 2024. The assignment of students to a faculty depends on the first subject of study. Students who are members of more than one faculty can informally submit declarations, in which faculty they want to exercise their voting rights, to the StWA until 14th May 2024. In the absence of such a declaration, the determination in the electoral register applies.

IV. Election Principles and Electoral System

Election Principles

The members of the student parliament are elected by students at the University of Potsdam in direct, free, equal, and secret elections according to the principles of personalized proportional representation based on lists drawn up based on valid election proposals. All persons entitled to vote can vote by selecting one or more candidates from one or more lists, but no more than three candidates. Any accumulation of votes on individual candidates will result in the invalidity of the vote.

Distribution of Seats

The seats are allocated to Sainte-Laguë/Schepers using the provisional method with standard rounding. The seats then allocated to the individual lists are allocated within the lists in the order of the number of votes obtained by the candidates, a so-called open list election. In case of a tie of votes of several lists, the StWA decides by drawing lots for the allocation of the last seat. In case of a tie within a list, the order of the lists in the list of candidates is decisive. All non-elected candidates are entered in descending order of their number of votes in a list of substitutes within the list.

Procedure in Case of too few Candidates

If there are too few candidates for the student parliament, i.e., not more than twice as many as the student parliament has seats, the election for the student parliament takes place as a simple election of persons with three votes. Here, the persons entitled to vote have the possibility to mark one or more candidates with a cross, but a maximum of three candidates. In this case, accumulation of votes is permitted. All candidates not elected according to this procedure will be included in a list of substitutes in descending order of the number of votes. In the event of a tie, the order will be decided by drawing lots.

V. Nominations and Election Proposals Lists

Submission of Election Proposals

Submissions can be sent to the StWA post office box on the Griebnitzsee campus, House 1, August-Bebel-Straße 89 in 14482 Potsdam, either by post or by the university's internal mail.

All documents required for the nominations must be received by the StWA by 21st May 2024, 12:00 (noon). Late submissions will not be accepted even in case of force majeure.

Use of Forms

Candidates are recommended to use the StWA forms that can be filled out on the computer to ensure the readability of manuscripts and all contents required by § 14 RWO. In the case of informal candidacies, this must be ensured independently. The forms are deposited under https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/stwa/candidacy.

Handwritten Signature

It is required that each election proposal is signed by the candidate themselves. Manual copies or powers of attorney in any form will not be recognized and will result in a demand for rectification of the defect in accordance with § 15 of the RWO, and after the expiration of the grace period the election proposal will be invalid. With his or her handwritten signature, each candidate irrevocably declares that they agree with the nomination and is prepared to accept the intended mandate in the event of their election.

We would like to point out separately that in the case of an election, no resignation is possible until the student parliament has been constituted.

List Size & List Speaker

Each election proposals list must contain at least two candidates. Each candidate may stand for election on only one election proposals list. If a candidate stands for election on more than one list, the candidate’s candidacies on all lists are invalid. In addition to the election proposals, each list must contain the order in which the candidacies were placed. Each list is requested to nominate a list spokesperson who will act as contact person for the StWA. Corresponding forms can be found on the StWA website at https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/stwa/candidacy.

If the list does not contain any information about the placement, the order of the nominations is decisive at the time of submission. If the list does not contain a list spokesperson, the first list position is the list spokesperson.

Announcement of the Nominations

The nominations will be published by the StWA publicly for the university on its website and by e-mail in accordance with § 15 (3) RWO, as soon as the deadline for nominations has expired, but no later than 14 days before the first day of the election.

VI. Postal Vote

All eligible voters can submit applications for postal voting; this can only be done online or on election days at the polling stations until closing time. In accordance with Section §18 (1) RWO, this application can be submitted until 13th June 2024 via the website of the StWA (see https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/stwa/postal-voting). The postal ballot envelope with the completed election documents must be received by the election office (Campus "Am Neuen Palais", House 9, Chancellor’s Office) or handed in at one of the polling stations by the end of the election period, at the latest on 20th June 2024, 16:30. Election letters received late will not be considered.

VII. Election Results

The election results will be announced in the form of a record of the election promptly after the votes have been counted via the student-list and on the StWA website. According to § 21 (1) RWO, an objection can be made to the StWA until the seventh day at 15:00 after the announcement of the election results.

Potsdam, 29th April 2024
The Student Election Committee