Frequently Asked Questions

When are postal ballots due and where should they be posted to?

Postal ballots should be received by last mail on (DATE TO BE DETERMINED) and addressed as follows:

UNIT AREA ELECTION BALLOT
Secretary, Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of Brisbane
PO Box 998, Paddington 4064

If you are a believer aged 18 years and older, you will have received your election call letter around the week of 20 March 2023.  The letter includes all the relevant dates and venue information as well as the voting list of local inhabitants for your unit area.

If you have not received your letter of invitation, please email the secretariat on secretariat@brisbane.bahai.org.au.

No. Please only attend your allocated unit area gathering and elect from names in your own unit area voting list.

If you have not received your election call letter which includes the list of names, please email the secretariat on secretariat@brisbane.bahai.org.au.

Only the 19 elected delegates will attend the delegates gathering.

Please contact the Secretariat on secretariat@brisbane.bahai.org.au immediately and provide your previous and new address.

No – unfortunately your vote will not count. If you are unable to attend your own unit area gathering, you can either mail your postal ballot as per the guidelines in your election call letter OR pass it to a friend residing in your unit area (with the appropriate authorisation) to submit it as an absentee ballot.

The community will be informed of the results of the unit area gatherings as soon as possible and practical.

At the bottom of the letter of invitation to take part in elections, there is an offer to contact the Secretariat if a translation of any part of the letter is required. Friends can contact the secretariat on secretariat@brisbane.bahai.org.au or leave a message on the telephone of the Brisbane Assembly 3367 3303.

Unit area boundaries are unrelated to sector boundaries. Division of Brisbane city into 9 unit areas requires that there are approximately the same number of people in each unit area.

The unit area boundaries for the two-stage election for Brisbane are reviewed each year due to movements in the population and to align to the principles outlined by the National Spiritual Assembly. The Brisbane Assembly focused on:

  • reducing the geographical spread of suburbs within a unit area (i.e., avoiding elongated unit area boundaries) to reduce travel distance and encourage participation in gatherings
  • ensuring that where suburbs were added to a unit area outside their normal sector boundary, multiple suburbs were moved together so friends are likely to be familiar with one another’s qualities
  • considering existing sector boundaries, weighing them more heavily than last year
  • the suburb level rather than the post code level
  • costs associated with hall hire (leveraging the use of the Brisbane Baháʼí Centre of Learning where a hall was not available or too expensive).

The House of Justice described this method as follows:

Similar in many respects to the election of a National Spiritual Assembly, it involves the division of a locality into units from each of which one or more delegates are elected, after which the delegates elect the members of the Local Assembly. As the number of Bahá’ís residing in a locality grows large and the community’s capacity for managing complexity increases, the case for implementing a two-stage electoral process becomes commensurately stronger. Accordingly, in the coming Plan, we expect to authorize the adoption of this method for electing a Local Assembly in many more places, both urban and rural, where conditions make such a step timely

Based on the guidance of the National Assembly, the following principles were identified as being highly desirable in the process of executing the two-stage elections:
  • Election of 19 delegates for Brisbane City
  • Preferably two delegates from each unit area
  • Division of Brisbane into nine units (eight units with 2 delegates and one unit with 3 delegates) with an ideal ratio of 1 delegate per 42 believers (Brisbane having approximately 800 adults at this point in time)
  • Leveraging proximity to maximise the friends’ familiarity with each other’s qualities
  • Maximising universal participation
  • Minimising or avoiding invalid votes (e.g., voting for people outside Brisbane; voting for people in Brisbane but outside the unit area, duplication of names)

As our community grows, it will not be possible to know each and all. On the national and international scale, it is similarly not possible to know the qualities of all those who are eligible to be elected.

In electing delegates from the friends in your unit area, electors are asked to prayerfully consider the qualities of those who you do know, keeping in mind the qualities that the beloved Guardian has proposed (see guidance enclosed in election call) in consideration of additional guidance from the message of the Universal House of Justice (16 May 2016 ) where it quotes the Guardian “Instead, the Guardian expected those assembled to “approach their task with absolute detachment” and “concentrate their attention on the most important and pressing issues” in order to obtain a “deeper and broader vision of the Cause through an increase in the spirit of unity and of whole hearted co-operation.” “The unfettered freedom of the individual should be tempered with mutual consultation and sacrifice,” he explained, “and the spirit of initiative and enterprise should be reinforced by a deeper realization of the supreme necessity for concerted action and a fuller devotion to the common weal.”

Election Deepening

To all friends in Brisbane aged 18 years and older.

The Assembly asks all friends take part in the deepening sessions prior to elections. The material is provided by the National Spiritual Assembly and is available in both English and Persian.

This endeavour is a part of spiritual preparation for the forthcoming elections, where the first stage of elections is just over one week from now. The study of this material impacts how our community elects its administrative bodies.

Please consider turning all existing spaces in the coming week into deepening spaces to study the compilation (e.g., study circles, grouping of families, existing deepenings, devotional spaces) if this has not already been done. If you are not currently engaged with any grouping that gathers regularly, please contact your sector officers so that everyone can have an opportunity to study it. Or contact the election task group of the Assembly via elections@brisbane.bahai.org.au.

How long will it take and who will facilitate it?
The material is typically completed between 3-5 hours, but friends should not feel obliged to limit their exploration of this important topic. Some friends in the community were asked to begin the process of initiating sessions. In these last few days, any of the friends who have already attended a facilitated deepening session this year can facilitate with a new group or family grouping.

How do I access the compilation?
The compilation is available via the links on the right. There are printed booklets available that you may source either from your sector officers or from the BBCL. They will be placed in a box outside the BBCL doors.

When do we need to complete this by?
This compilation has particular relevance in light of the upcoming two-stage elections so it would be ideal if deepenings were held prior to the Unit Area Gatherings (11th-13th April), however the topic of Bahá’í elections is something that remains important throughout the year as we serve together to build vibrant communities and an ongoing approach to deepening our understanding of this sacred duty would be beneficial.

What do we do when we have completed the deepening?
Upon completion of the deepening, please share the names of those who have participated in your study session. Please also offer any reflections you may have via this form https://forms.office.com/r/w07r6qfpyR.

What is the expected outcome?
The material has been designed to educate the friends on the sanctity of elections and the station of the Local Spiritual Assembly, but more importantly, it is hoped that by deepening on this material, the friends will experience a profound shift in their mindset, approach to community life and their role as a protagonist in the Nine-Year Plan.

More information
This deepening focuses on the sacredness and spiritual principles underlying the Bahá’í electoral process, and the role of every individual in participating wholeheartedly in these elections. The education process is intended to stimulate further conversations with the aim of deepening the understanding of the friends about the formation of the Assembly and its purpose; what it means for someone to be called to serve on an institution; how the individual, the community and the Local Assembly and its agencies relate to one another; and how this ongoing conversation will strengthen the elected body and the dynamism of community life.

The following education materials have been developed, drawing on key concepts outlined in the Universal House of Justice letters of 30 December 2021 and 18 January 2022, as well as other resources (i.e. Book 8 Unit 2, compilation on The Sanctity and Nature of Bahá’í Elections).

Resources

Bahai-Elections-v1.pdf

Bahai-Elections-v1-Persian.pdf