High Council update

Over the weekend the High Council continued to meet at Sunbury Court, UK.

The 109 delegates listened to the questions and answers from the 9 candidates for General, and where appropriate, from their spouses also. There were intense worship times, led by the new Council Chaplain, Commissioner Vic Poke.

From this morning, the President of the Council, Commissioner Jim Knaggs, will be calling on the delegates to commence the voting process. The voting works simply.

Each delegate is called forward by the President or Vice President (Colonel Birgitte Brekke) and handed a ballot paper. They then retire to the voting room, tick their choice for General and place their paper in the ballot box. When the vote counters then tally the votes the following happens:

The candidate with the least number of votes is automatically eliminated from eligibility.
On the first three ballots, if one candidate recieves more than 2/3 of the vote, they are declared the General-elect.
On any subsequent ballot, any candidate with more that 1/2 of the vote is declared General-elect.
This voting and counting can continue until such point as there are only two remaining candidates, at which point it is assumed (as there are an odd number of delegates) that one will receive more than 50% of the vote.

Each ballot can take over an hour, and is conducted in silence as the delegates pray for each other, the candidates and the process at hand. We should, as we can, also support them in prayer as they elect our new General. A notice will be sent around the world about a live webcast for the announcement of the new General-elect. I would assume that this would happen sometime tomorrow, UK time (perhaps late into the night Australian time).