Director Election Update

Thank you to the 230+ members who joined us for our AGM and SGM on 19 November, and to the 2500+ members who voted in our Director Elections. 

In response to questions raised during and after the meeting, EA sought external legal advice to confirm the correct counting rules for both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the election process. With these rules clarified, Vero Voting undertook a full review of the count. EA also engaged SW Accountants & Advisors as an independent auditor to review the re-declaration and provide additional assurance for our members.

The error occurred during Stage 2 of the counting process outlined in the EA Constitution (Rule 18.1). In Stage 1, members from each state Branch vote for their preferred candidates. Each Candidate is then ranked based on how many votes they received from that Branch's members, with the top-ranked candidate receiving the highest score, the second-ranked receiving one point less, and so on. In Stage 2, these scores from all Branches are manually added together to determine the overall winners. Because this two-stage process is unique to Equestrian Australia's Constitution and Stage 2 requires manual calculation rather than automated counting, a human error was made by Vero when adding up the scores across all Branches, leading to the initial incorrect declaration of results.

Following this review, the successful candidates are Brett Cantle and Nicola Rockwell (not Brad Frankum). Vero Voting has acknowledged this unprecedented error and apologised for the impact on candidates and members.

Equestrian Australia expresses its sincere apologies to Brad Frankum and Nicola Rockwell for this mistake. We take full responsibility and are extremely sorry that this occurred. We thank both candidates for their patience, professionalism, and understanding throughout this process.

We also apologise to our members for this error and the concern it understandably created, and we are committed to learning from this.

To ensure utmost impartiality and independence, the election was conducted by independent voting organisation Vero Voting, with EA maintaining strict independence from the Director Election process at all times. Unfortunately, Vero Voting initially misinterpreted EA's constitution regarding the counting process and an unprecedented tie at the branch level, which led to an incorrect initial declaration of results.

EA congratulates Brett Cantle and Nicola Rockwell on their election to the Board – we look forward to their valued contribution to the Board.