Rule 13 Geographical distribution

13.1 The election of Members of the Committee shall be conducted on the basis of the electoral groups of UNESCO, as determined by the UNESCO General Conference at its most recent session, it being understood that ‘Group V’ shall consist of two separate groups for the African and Arab States.

13.2 (i) The seats in the Committee composed of 18 Members shall be distributed among electoral groups in proportion to the number of States Parties from each group, provided that, after such distribution, at least two seats have been attributed to each group.

(ii) Once the number of States Members of the Committee reaches 24, the seats shall be distributed at each election among electoral groups in proportion to the number of States Parties from each group, provided that, after such distribution, at least three seats have been attributed to each group.

Rule 14 Procedures for the presentation of candidatures to the Committee

14.1 The Secretariat shall ask all States Parties, three months prior to the date of the election, whether they intend to stand for election to the Committee. States Parties are requested to send their candidature to the Secretariat at least six weeks prior to the opening of the Assembly.

14.2 At least four weeks prior to the opening of the Assembly, the Secretariat shall send to all States Parties the provisional list of candidate States Parties, indicating the electoral group to which they belong and the number of seats to be filled in each electoral group. The Secretariat shall also provide information on the status of all compulsory and voluntary contributions to the Fund for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage made by each of the candidates. The list of candidatures will be revised as necessary.

14.3 No payments of compulsory and voluntary contributions to the Fund (for the purpose of presenting a candidature to the Committee) will be accepted later than a week before the opening of the Assembly.

14.4 The list of candidatures shall be finalized three working days prior to the opening of the General Assembly. No candidature will be accepted in the three working days preceding the opening of the Assembly.

Rule 15 Election of Members of the Committee

15.1 The election of Members of the Committee shall be conducted by secret ballot except that, where the number of candidates within geographical distribution is the same as or less than the number of seats to be filled, the candidates shall be declared elected without the need to hold a ballot.

15.2 Before the election begins, the Chairperson shall appoint two tellers from among the delegates present; he/she shall hand to them the list of States Parties entitled to vote and the list of candidate States Parties. He/She shall announce the number of seats to be filled.

15.3 The Secretariat shall prepare for each delegation having the right to vote an envelope without any distinguishing mark and separate ballot papers, one for each of the electoral groups. The ballot paper for each electoral group shall bear the names of all the candidate States Parties in that electoral group.

15.4 Each delegation shall cast its vote by encircling the names of those States for which it desires to vote.

15.5 The tellers shall collect from each delegation the envelope containing the ballot papers and shall count the votes, under the supervision of the Chairperson.

15.6 The absence of any ballot paper in the envelope shall be considered an abstention.

15.7 Ballot papers on which more names have been circled than there are seats to be filled as also those containing no indication as to the intention of the voter shall be considered invalid.

15.8 The counting of the votes for each electoral group shall take place separately. The tellers shall open the envelopes, one by one, and shall sort the ballot papers into electoral groups. The votes cast for the candidate States Parties shall be entered on lists prepared for that purpose.

15.9 The Chairperson shall declare elected those candidates who obtain the greatest number of votes up to the number of seats to be filled. If two or more candidates obtain the same number of votes, and, as a result, there are still more candidates than seats to be filled, there shall be a second secret ballot restricted to those candidates who obtained the same number of votes. If in the second ballot two or more candidates obtain the same number of votes, the Chairperson shall draw lots to decide the elected candidate.

15.10 When the counting of the votes is completed, the Chairperson shall announce the results of the ballot separately for each of the electoral groups.