Unt Area Gatherings

7:30-9pm
Tuesday 11th to Thursday 13th April
See below for more information

Delegates Gathering

7-9pm
Tuesday 18th April
Brisbane Bahá’í Centre of Learning

Annual General Meeting

7-9pm
Thursday 20th April
Brisbane Bahá’í Centre of Learning

Unit Area Gatherings – Boundaries

Unit Area A B C D E F G H I
Date Thursday
13 April
Tuesday
11 April
Wednesday
12 April
Thursday
13 April
Tuesday
11 April
Wednesday
12 April
Wednesday
12 April
Tuesday
11 April
Thursday
13 April
Time 7:30-9pm
Venue Brisbane Baháʼí Centre of Learning
26 Mayneview St, Milton
New Inala Hall
Corner Corsair Ave & Wirraway Pde, Inala
Sunnybank Hall
Corner Lister & Gager Streets, Sunnybank
St Lukes at Ekibin
193 Ekibin Rd East, Ekibin
Tingalpa Uniting Church Hall
61 Belmont Rd, Tingalpa
St Lucia Community Hall
27 Guilfoyle St, Ironside Park, St Lucia
Brisbane Baháʼí Centre of Learning
26 Mayneview St, Milton
Bracken Ridge Hall
77 Bracken St, Bracken Ridge (Meeting Rooms 1 & 2)
Northgate Hall
71 Scott St, Northgate
Suburbs Anstead
Bellbowrie
Brookfield
Chelmer
Fig Tree Pocket
Graceville
Jamboree Heights
Jindalee
Karana Downs
Kenmore
Middle Park
Moggill
Mount Crosby
Mount Ommaney
Pinjarra Hills
Pullenvale
Riverhills
Sinnamon Park
Sumner
Upper Brookfield
Westlake
Carole Park
Corinda
Darra
Doolandella
Durack
Ellen Grove
Forest Lake
Heathwood
Inala
Larapinta
Oxley
Pallara
Richlands
Seventeen Mile Rocks
Sherwood
Wacol
Willawong
Acacia Ridge
Algester
Calamvale
Coopers Plains
Drewvale
Eight Mile Plains
Kuraby
Macgregor
Mansfield
Parkinson
Robertson
Rochedale
Runcorn
Stretton
Sunnybank
Sunnybank Hills
Upper Mount Gravatt
Wishart
Annerley
Archerfield
Coorparoo
East Brisbane
Greenslopes
Holland Park
Holland Park North
Holland Park West
Moorooka
Mount Gravatt
Mount Gravatt East
Nathan
Rocklea
Salisbury
Stones Corner
Tarragindi
Tennyson
Woolloongabba
Yeerongpilly
Balmoral
Belmont
Bulimba
Burbank
Camp Hill
Cannon Hill
Capalaba
Carina
Carina Heights
Carindale
Chandler
Gumdale
Hawthorne
Hemmant
Lota
Lytton
Mackenzie
Manly
Manly West
Morningside
Murarrie
Norman Park
Port of Brisbane
Ransome
Seven Hills
Tingalpa
Wakerley
Wynnum
Wynnum North
Wynnum West
Dutton Park
Fairfield
Highgate Hill
Indooroopilly
Kangaroo Point
South Brisbane
St Lucia
Taringa
West End
Yeronga
Alderley
Ashgrove
Auchenflower
Bardon
Chapel Hill
Enoggera
Enoggera Reservoir
Everton Park
Ferny Grove
Gaythorne
Grange
Kenmore Hills
Keperra
McDowall
Milton
Mitchelton
Mount Coot-tha
Newmarket
Paddington
Red Hill
The Gap
Toowong
Upper Kedron
Wilston
Aspley
Bald Hills
Boondall
Bracken Ridge
Bridgeman Downs
Brighton
Carseldine
Chermside
Chermside West
Deagon
Fitzgibbon
Geebung
Sandgate
Shorncliffe
Taigum
Wavell Heights
Zillmere
Albion
Ascot
Banyo
Bowen Hills
Brisbane
Brisbane City
Brisbane CityBrisbane Airport
Clayfield
Eagle Farm
Fortitude Valley
Gordon Park
Hamilton
Hendra
Herston
Kalinga
Kedron
Kelvin Grove
Lutwyche
New Farm
Newstead
Northgate
Nudgee
Nudgee Beach
Nundah
Petrie Terrace
Pinkenba
Spring Hill
Stafford
Stafford Heights
Teneriffe
Virginia
Windsor
Wooloowin

Frequently Asked Questions

Postal ballots should be received by last mail on Friday 7th April 2023 and sent to:

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

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

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.

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

Only elected delegates attend the delegates gathering.

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 (with the correct authorisation) who is listed in your unit area voting list to submit it as an absentee ballot.

The community will be informed of the results of the election after each stage as soon as possible and practicable.

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 need only contact the secretariat (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.”