The purpose of the Election Code is to govern the election of the India Semiconductor Association (“ISA”); for which the ISA mandates wide election with regard to all its members. The Election Code shall also govern the procedures for advisory questions and referenda.

1. The Executive Council (EC) together with the Board of Directors shall be the main decision making body of ISA and shall strive to fulfill the objectives, purpose and goals of ISA.

2. A neutral person or body will act as the Election Commissioner and will oversee and guide the actual process of the elections, counting of votes post election and formal announcement of election results.

3. The term of the EC shall initially be for a period of around one year from the date of its assuming office.

4. Associate members shall not be eligible to contest the elections, nor vote in it.

5. The Venture Capitalist VC members shall not be allowed to vote directly in the election, but, can transfer their suffrage to their group company/ies, which shall be entitled to exercise this vote.

6. Members who have not cleared their membership dues are not eligible either to contest or eligible to vote.

7. Membership renewal is mandatory for participation in election.

8. One authorized representative of each fully paid, member company shall be considered to be eligible for being elected as a member of the EC.

9. The authorized representative of the primary member company, eligible for the elective office must normally be either the Chairman, Managing Director, Chief Executive or equivalent, Partner or Proprietor of the member company – essentially a person senior enough in the member company to be of significance in taking decisions or influencing the decisions. The member company should furnish an appropriate communication from duly authorized signatory in the Company to nominate a person from their Company as the authorized representative at ISA.

1. The EC shall consist of 12 members who shall be brought into office in the following manner:
   
   

   Category	Number
   Elected Members	8
   Chairman (Vice Chairman of previous Executive Council)	1
   Co-opted by elected members of EC	1(optional)
   Previous Chairman can be nominated by EC to become Adviser	1
   President	1
   Maximum	12

2. Serving ISA President will be member of the EC.
   


3. The Vice Chairman and Treasurer will be elected by the elected members of the EC immediately upon its assuming office after the Annual General Meeting.


4. Office of Chairman can be held for a maximum of one term only.



5. To ensure the national presence and perspective of ISA, the elected members of the EC will have the right to co-opt up to one member who has the drive and vision for ISA into EC.


6. The positions for co-opted member shall be reserved for the members in any one of the following categories :
   
   1. An eligible primary member having a business presence in a ‘primary location’ viz. NCR and Hyderabad if they do not have an elected representative in the EC
   
   
   2. Venture Capitalist VC or
   
   
   3. Academician.
   
   
   
   
7. For the purpose of elections, any business city that has atleast 10 ISA primary members that are eligible to vote shall be considered as a ‘Primary Location’. At the commencement of elections for year 2008-2009, the business cities that qualify as primary locations of ISA are: Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi/NCR.


8. In case, none of the members from such primary locations happens to get elected to the 9 elected positions in the EC through the national election process, the elected EC shall consider co-opting the highest vote getters from such primary locations, while limiting the co-opted members to no more than 1 countrywide.


9. Co-opted members shall have voting rights at par with the elected EC members for arriving at any collective decisions to be made by the ISA EC.


10. Each primary location shall function as a local chapter of ISA with administrative support from ISA Secretariat. Chapters would support the objectives, purpose and goals of ISA as per overall direction from the ISA EC. The local Chapter’s activities at each of the primary locations shall be coordinated by one EC member at each of the primary locations who shall be chosen by the ISA EC from amongst the EC members from the respective primary locations.


11. ISA would also aim to expand its presence and activities in other business cities that may have less than 10 primary members and hence do not qualify as a primary location. In such locations, ISA EC will nominate ‘ISA Representatives’ from amongst the eligible primary members from the respective business city. ‘ISA Representatives’ would act as a primary liaison with ISA EC for the members in that business location and would support the objectives, purpose and goals of ISA as per overall direction from the ISA EC.


12. In addition to the above, ISA EC will have the right to create advisory bodies for specific areas of interest to ISA by inviting people of preeminence and global repute in such areas to add to the overall expertise and effectiveness of ISA in pursuing its objectives, purpose and goals.
    


13. The Election Process should ideally be constituted by April 30.



14. The induction of the new EC should ideally be completed by May 31



15. The current EC continues until the new EC takes office

1. All primary members as per ISA records can contest the elections.

2. The outgoing Chairman and Vice Chairman are not eligible to be part of the election process .The outgoing Vice Chairman automatically gets voted as the Chairman of the EC and the outgoing Chairman is eligible to be nominated as Adviser by the incoming EC.

3. Post voting, the members with the highest votes will be contacted by the Election Commissioner to check on their willingness to become members of the ISA EC.

4. Only these members who are willing to accept the responsibility of becoming ISA EC members will be announced and will assume office.

5. Election will be by secret ballot.

6. All the ballots must reach in soft copy only from the primary contact’s id of each eligible member company

7. All member companies to complete the ballot form as provided by ISA, by writing down unambiguously, the names of up to eight authorized representatives from primary member companies. Names of all authorized representatives from the primary member companies shall be provided along with the ballot form. Ballot forms with less than eight names shall also be considered as valid votes.

8. In the event of the authorized representative of the member company being no longer with the member company which has nominated him/her and ISA is duly informed by the member company, he/she will cease to be an EC member / office bearer of ISA . ISA EC however at its discretion will have the right to request such a member to continue in the EC/office bearer position for up to 90 days from the day he/she leaves the employment of the member company.

9. Vacancy in the EC that may occur for whatever reasons, may be filled by the EC by co-opting additional members to the EC from amongst the list of members that satisfy the eligibility criteria as per this election code of ISA till the next election of the new Council.

10. The tenure of these members who fill in the temporary vacancy in the EC will coincide with the tenure of the EC Body. The outgoing council members shall be eligible for re-election.

11. The voting rights of members shall be calculated on the basis of the annual membership subscription of members on the following basis:

    • Category A – 5 Votes
    • Category B – 2 Votes
    • Category C – 1 Vote
    
    
12. The votes of each member will be ‘weighted’ (multiplied) by the weightage they are eligible for, to get the over all voting strengths.


13. Ballot papers not complete in all respects shall be rejected. Ballot papers received after the prescribed date and time shall also stand rejected.


14. The following votes will be treated as invalid:
    
    • If there are names of more candidates marked than required to be marked on the ballot paper
    
    
    • If there are no names on the ballot paper at all
    
    
    • If there are name on the ballot paper that are not in the list given to the members before voting
    
    
    • If the writing is such that it cannot be decided as to in whose favor the vote is cast
    
    
    • If the writing is outside the specified area
    
    
    • If the ballot in hard copy is received beyond the closing time and date
    
    

Amendments to these bylaws may be made by the vote of half of the Executive Council and approval of the Board of Directors

Any individual qualified and listed on the final ballot for ISA’s EC elections is free to campaign to win the position on the EC. Please note that ISA is unable to assist in any way with any campaigning. A list of ISA members eligible for election will be circulated along with the election notice letter. Campaigning in such a manner that does not follow appropriate business protocol may be cause for elimination from the election. ISA’s EC maintains the right to eliminate any candidate based on unethical or inappropriate campaign tactics.