Association Election Dispute in Bangladesh: Forums, Remedies and the 2026 Position

Association election dispute in Bangladesh: the 2026 map of forums and remedies

An association election dispute in Bangladesh is rarely only about who won. The result decides who signs cheques, who speaks to ministries, who controls the premises and who represents an industry, a profession or a neighbourhood for the next term. When a voter list is padded, a nomination is rejected or an executive committee quietly extends itself, the losing side usually wants one thing: to stop the process before it becomes irreversible. Whether that is possible, and where, depends less on the grievance than on the legal vehicle that holds the election.

This guide maps the routes in 2026 for each kind of body: societies registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, chambers and trade associations licensed under the Trade Organisation Act 2022, clubs incorporated as companies limited by guarantee, and cooperative societies. It covers the Directorate of Trade Organisations and the FBCCI tribunal, the statutory dispute machinery for cooperatives, civil suits and temporary injunctions, the limits of writ jurisdiction, and the evidence that wins voter-list and nomination disputes. It also explains the 2025 and 2026 developments, including the administrators now running major trade bodies and the pending rewrite of the trade organisation rules.

Summary: There is no single election tribunal for associations in Bangladesh. A registered society's election is usually challenged in the civil court on its constitution; a chamber or trade association must also deal with the Director General of Trade Organisations, the Trade Organisation Rules 2025 and, often, the FBCCI tribunal; a club incorporated as a company can go to the High Court Division in company matters; and a cooperative society's election goes through the statutory dispute route under sections 50 and 52 of the Cooperative Societies Act 2001. A writ petition lies only where a statutory or public body's act is in issue and no equally efficacious remedy exists.

Key point: Choose the forum before you draft the complaint. In July 2025 the High Court Division discharged a writ against a cooperative society election because the statutory dispute and appeal route was an equally efficacious remedy, and in May 2026 it treated a challenge to a committee president's election as infructuous because the committee's two-year term had expired. Time and forum errors, not weak facts, lose most election challenges.

At a glance

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Table of Contents

Why the legal vehicle decides an association election dispute in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has no general election code for private bodies. Article 38 of the Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to form associations or unions, subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interests of morality or public order.[2] The detail of how an association elects its leaders is left to the statute under which it was formed and to its own constitution, memorandum and articles, or bye-laws. That is why the first question in any association election dispute in Bangladesh is classificatory: what is this body, legally, and which law and regulator sit above its constitution?

The answer changes almost everything that follows. It decides whether a government officer can step in, whether there is a compulsory internal or statutory tribunal, whether the civil court or the High Court Division is the right forum, and whether a writ petition is even arguable. Members often describe their organisation loosely as a "samity", "association" or "club". Those labels say nothing about the legal route. The registration certificate, licence and governing documents do.

The four common vehicles

Most member organisations fall into one of four categories. A society registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860 is governed by its memorandum and rules, and the Act itself says little about elections.[1] A chamber of commerce or trade association is licensed under the Trade Organisation Act 2022 and subject to the Trade Organisation Rules 2025, which were gazetted on 20 May 2025.[4] Many established clubs and some associations are companies limited by guarantee, so the Companies Act 1994 and their articles apply.[12] A cooperative society is governed by the Cooperative Societies Act 2001 and its own statutory dispute machinery.[11]

Some bodies combine features. A trade association is frequently also a company registered under the Companies Act, so both the trade organisation regime and company law apply. In the FBCCI's case, for example, the administrator appointed in 2026 was told to hold the election in accordance with the Trade Organisation Act 2022, the Trade Organisation Rules 2025, the Companies Act 1994 and the federation's memorandum and articles.[10] Statutory professional bodies and bodies created by special statute raise further public-law questions, discussed below. For the choice of vehicle at formation, see our guide on how to form an association in Bangladesh.

Registered societies: the constitution, the register and the civil court

The Societies Registration Act 1860 is a registration statute, not an election code. It defines the governing body as whichever council, committee, trustees or other body the society's rules entrust with managing its affairs.[1] Every election question therefore starts with the society's own rules: who is a member, who may vote, how the election committee is appointed, the nomination timetable, notice and quorum, and whether there is an internal appeal.

Statutory rules that bite on elections

Two provisions of the Act matter in almost every dispute. Section 15 treats as a member a person admitted under the rules who has paid a subscription or signed the roll, and has not resigned; but a member whose subscription is more than three months in arrears cannot vote or be counted as a member for the purposes of the Act.[1] That gives a statutory footing to arrears-based exclusions from the voter list, while leaving the society's own eligibility rules to operate alongside it.

Section 4 requires the society to file each year with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies a list of the names, addresses and occupations of its governing body: within fourteen days after the annual general meeting where the rules provide for one, and otherwise in January.[1] That filing is valuable evidence of who the society claimed was in office. It is not a determination that the election was valid, and RJSC does not adjudicate disputed society elections. A filed list can be challenged like any other act of the disputed committee.

Who sues, and in whose name

Section 6 allows a registered society to sue or be sued in the name of its president, chairman, principal secretary or trustees, as its rules determine, or otherwise in the name of a person the governing body appoints for the occasion.[1]

In a factional dispute this is not a technicality. Both camps will claim to be the governing body, and a plaint that names only one faction's officers invites an early objection. The safer course is to sue the society through the officer its rules identify and to join the rival office-holders and the election committee personally. Where competing committees are already operating, our analysis of two rival boards in one institution deals with bank mandates and contracts in the interim.

The remedy for a society member is ordinarily a civil suit for a declaration and injunction, discussed below. There is no registrar-led appeal, and the High Court Division's writ jurisdiction is usually unavailable against a purely private society.

Chambers and trade associations under the Trade Organisation Act 2022

Chambers of commerce, sector associations and federations are in a different position. They are licensed trade organisations, and the Trade Organisation Act 2022 gives the Ministry of Commerce and the Director General of Trade Organisations real supervisory powers over them. The Trade Organisation Rules 2025 then prescribe much of the election architecture, including, according to the Ministry's own account in a 2025 writ, a requirement that election boards consist of a chairman and two members and exclude executive committee members, candidates, nominees and their supporters.[4] For trade bodies, the regulatory route often matters as much as the courtroom.

Administrators under section 17

The most powerful tool is section 17. The government has repeatedly used it to cancel an executive committee and appoint an administrator, who must then hold a fair election within 120 days and hand over to the elected committee.[5] In July 2025 the Trade Organisation Division cancelled the board of a CNG station owners' association after an investigating officer reported errors in the voter list and the committee failed to answer a show-cause notice satisfactorily; on the same day it appointed an administrator to an acid merchants' association whose committee had held elections in breach of a February 2025 verdict of the FBCCI arbitration tribunal.[5]

Section 17 orders are themselves open to challenge. In December 2024 the High Court Division declared illegal the Ministry's October 2024 order dissolving the executive committee of the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh and appointing an administrator, and reinstated the previous committee, after the Appellate Division had sent the rule back for hearing.[6] An administrator is therefore not the end of an association election dispute in Bangladesh; it often begins a new one.

Appeals to the Director General and the Ministry

The Act also provides an administrative appeal. In Tapan Kumar Sarkar v Government of Bangladesh (Writ Petition No. 9508 of 2025), members of an exporters' association appealed under section 24 to the Ministry and the Director General against the election schedule set by an administrator's election board. The Director General heard the appeals and directed reconstitution of the election board and election appeal board under sections 15 and 18. When the boards carried on regardless, the members filed a writ; the High Court Division stayed the boards and, on 20 August 2025, directed the respondents to reconstitute them within 30 days.[4]

The case shows the practical sequence for trade bodies: a documented complaint or appeal to the Director General first, then the High Court Division against a public authority that fails to act on its own decision. It also shows the arguments the government will run in reply: that membership had lapsed for unpaid fees under the articles, that the Rules had changed, that section 20 of the Act provides an arbitration tribunal, and that aggrieved members must first approach the Director General and then the Secretary.[4]

The FBCCI tribunal

Disputes inside member chambers and associations are often first taken to the FBCCI's arbitration or alternative dispute settlement tribunal. The Chattogram Chamber dispute illustrates how this interacts with the courts. A member complained to the FBCCI tribunal that eight trade and town groups were inactive and should be excluded, then filed a writ in September 2025.[7]

After the High Court Division ordered the poll to proceed without those groups, the Ministry of Commerce appealed and on 30 October 2025 the Appellate Division suspended the 1 November election for two weeks and directed the High Court Division to dispose of the writ.[7] In 2026 the rescheduled 4 April election was postponed again after the court directed that the dispute be resolved by the FBCCI tribunal by 26 April 2026.[8]

The lesson is that a court may send a trade-body election dispute back to the tribunal designed for it. A challenger who skips the tribunal risks delay; one who uses it, and records the outcome, arrives in court with a stronger case.

The 2026 position: administrators and rules under review

The largest trade bodies remain without elected boards. On 26 July 2026 the Ministry appointed Md Fazlul Hoque, a former BKMEA president, as FBCCI administrator under section 17, replacing the previous administrator, who had been relieved on 27 June; he took charge on 2 August 2026 with a mandate to hold a fair election within 120 days.[10] In July 2026 the Ministry published a draft amendment to the Trade Organisation Rules 2025 for comment until 25 July. It would end mandatory direct voting for every post and leave voting and leadership selection to each organisation's memorandum and articles, give a member with several memberships one vote per election, and let each body set its own fees.[9]

The same report noted that several writ petitions seeking changes to the rules had been filed, that the FBCCI had been without a board for 21 months, and that the Dhaka Chamber was waiting for the amendments before holding its own election.[9] We have not been able to confirm that a final amendment has been gazetted at the date of writing. Anyone advising on a trade-body election in late 2026 must check which version of the rules governs the schedule in question, because an election held under superseded rules is an obvious target.

Clubs and companies limited by guarantee

Many of the country's best-known clubs, and a number of associations, are companies limited by guarantee. Their elections are governed by the articles, which section 22 of the Companies Act 1994 treats as a statutory contract binding the company and its members.[12] Disputes about general meetings and elections can be brought before the High Court Division as company matters, and two 2026 judgments show how the court approaches them.

Strict compliance on notice

In a company matter concerning Dhaka Club Limited, decided on 17 August 2026, a member challenged the notice convening an extraordinary general meeting to amend the club's articles. The court held the application maintainable because it went to the legality of the meeting process, but found that the notice had not been validly served: the articles permitted personal delivery or post, and courier delivery was neither. Actual receipt did not cure the defect, and the club had to issue fresh notice for a new date.[12]

The court also confirmed the limits of section 85(3), under which it may order a meeting to be called, held and conducted where that is impracticable in the usual way. The provision does not allow the court to review the merits of a resolution, and allegations of bad faith and conflict did not justify restraining the amendments or appointing an independent chairman.[12]

Irregularity without prejudice

About a week earlier, in a company matter concerning Sylhet Station Club Ltd, the High Court Division dismissed with costs of Tk 50,000 a member's attempt to unwind several years of AGMs and an election. Departing from the articles' tie-break procedure did not void the election without demonstrated prejudice, particularly where the petitioner raised no objection at the meeting; the resignation of office-bearers did not dissolve the committee; and late filings and audit irregularities were curable by rectification.[13]

Read together, the two decisions set the standard for club election challenges. A clear breach of a mandatory procedural rule, such as service of notice, will be enforced even against a well-advised respondent. A complaint about how a meeting was run, raised late and without proof that the outcome was affected, will not. Disputes that turn on members' rights more broadly overlap with corporate and shareholder disputes.

Cooperative societies: the statutory dispute route comes first

Cooperative societies have the most structured route of all. Under the Cooperative Societies Act 2001, election disputes are referred into the cooperative dispute machinery, with a right of appeal and a further application to the District Judge. In Md Lukman Hosen v Government of Bangladesh (Writ Petition No. 3871 of 2024), unsuccessful candidates in a Tangail multipurpose samity's October 2023 election filed dispute cases; the District Cooperative Officer, sitting as arbitrator, rejected them; and the Deputy Registrar (Judicial) on appeal set aside the award and, according to the winners, ordered a fresh poll for three posts.[11]

The judgment records the structure. Section 50 sets out the disputes that may be referred and provides an appeal within 30 days; section 52(2)(a) allows a party to apply to the District Judge within 30 days of an appellate decision that is manifestly wrong on a point of law.[11] On 3 July 2025 the High Court Division held that this route was an adequate and equally efficacious alternative remedy under Article 102(2), discharged the rule and vacated the stay. It followed the Appellate Division's decision in Md Nabiul Islam Chowdhury v Joint Registrar, III ADC (2006) 928, and found no exception, such as a challenge to the vires of a statute, that would justify bypassing the statutory route.[11]

For a cooperative election, then, the sequence is: dispute case to the competent cooperative officer, appeal within 30 days, then the District Judge. Members who go straight to the High Court Division should expect the rule to be discharged, and they will have lost weeks in which the elected committee has taken office.

Voter list disputes: where most elections are won and lost

Most contests, and most of any association election dispute in Bangladesh, are decided before polling day, by the list of who may vote. Voter list disputes take four forms: eligible members omitted, ineligible persons added, the eligibility date moved after the process starts, or the register altered without a recorded decision. The Ministry's 2025 cancellation of an association's board followed an investigating officer's report of errors in the voter list, which shows that regulators treat a manipulated register as a governance failure, not merely an election irregularity.[5]

Fix the eligibility date and the rule

Identify the precise rule that defines a voter and the date on which eligibility is tested. It may be the date of the election notice, a renewal deadline, the close of a membership drive or a date fixed by the election board. Then test each disputed name against it. For registered societies, section 15 of the 1860 Act adds a statutory floor: a member more than three months in arrears cannot vote.[1] For trade bodies, the articles may impose their own lapse rules; in the exporters' association case the government argued that membership ceased after two years of unpaid subscriptions.[4]

Build a member-by-member schedule

General allegations of "pocket voters" rarely succeed on their own. A usable schedule records, for each disputed voter, the application, admission decision, category, payment record, any suspension, the objection made and the decision on it. Where a corporate member votes through a representative, record the authorisation. The Chattogram Chamber dispute was framed around a specific category of members, the trade and town groups, which made it possible for the courts to make targeted orders about them.[7]

Ask for the record early, and show materiality

Request in writing the draft and final voter lists, the membership register, objections received and the decisions on them, with the minutes of the body that approved the list. A documented refusal supports urgency later. Then explain why the error matters: whether the disputed voters could change the result, affect a nomination or quorum, or show a deliberate pattern. A handful of wrong names in a landslide will not justify stopping an election; systematic exclusion of a rival's supporters may.

Nominations, notice and quorum

Nomination challenges in an association election dispute in Bangladesh often become personal, but the legal analysis is mechanical. Identify who rejected the nomination, under which rule, for what stated reason, and whether the same rule was applied to every candidate. Preserve the form as submitted, proof and time of delivery, the receipt, the fee payment and every communication. A rejection for an unwritten requirement, an inconsistent standard or a decision by a conflicted election board is far more vulnerable than a rejection for a missed deadline that applied to everyone.

Term limits and eligibility rules in trade bodies

For trade organisations, eligibility to stand is increasingly a matter of the rules rather than the articles. The 2025 Rules, including their limits on who may stand, prompted several writ petitions seeking changes, and the draft 2026 amendment proposes further changes to how leaders are chosen.[9] A candidate rejected under a rule that is itself under challenge, or that changed mid-process, should identify that point at once and put it to the election appeal board in writing.

Notice and quorum

Notice is often the cleanest ground because it can be proved from dates and documents. Check who was entitled to call the meeting, the minimum notice period, the permitted mode of service and the content required. The Dhaka Club judgment shows that the mode of service matters even where members in fact received the notice.[12] Quorum should be reconstructed from the attendance record, with disputed voters identified. Not every defect is fatal: a member who attends, votes and raises no objection will find it hard to complain later, as the Sylhet Station Club petitioner discovered.[13]

Civil suits and temporary injunctions in an association election dispute in Bangladesh

For a registered society, an unincorporated association and many internal disputes in other bodies, the civil court is the natural forum. The usual claim is for a declaration that a decision, list or election is unlawful, with consequential relief. Section 42 of the Specific Relief Act 1877 lets a court declare a person's legal character or right, but a plaintiff who could ask for further relief and omits it risks dismissal, so a bare declaration that an election is void is a drafting error.[3]

The plaint should also ask for what must happen next: a corrected list, fresh nominations, a new election, or restraint on a committee acting on a disputed result. See our guide to filing a civil suit in Bangladesh.

Interim relief and the balance of convenience

The decisive hearing is usually the application for a temporary injunction under Order XXXIX of the Code of Civil Procedure. Courts ask whether there is a prima facie arguable case, where the balance of convenience lies and whether refusal would cause irreparable loss. In a challenge to the election of a school managing committee president, the High Court Division on 6 May 2026 refused to interfere with the concurrent refusal of an injunction: the balance lay heavily with the defendants, the appointments were matters for trial evidence, and the election prayer had become infructuous because the committee's two-year term had expired.[14]

That decision captures the central risk. An election challenge that is not resolved within the term of the disputed committee can lose its point. A claimant should therefore ask for the narrowest order that protects the position: preservation of ballots and records, an order that a disputed candidate may stand subject to the outcome, postponement of the declaration rather than the vote, or a restraint on major decisions by the new committee. A wholesale stay of an election days before polling is the hardest order to obtain and the easiest to set aside.

Trial, expedition and costs

Because election suits age quickly, ask for an expedited hearing at the first opportunity. Revisional courts regularly direct trial courts to conclude such suits without unnecessary adjournments, but they will rarely substitute their view for concurrent findings on an injunction.[14] Where the facts are thin, the court may award costs against the challenger, as the High Court Division did in the Sylhet Station Club matter.[13] For final restraints after trial, see our note on permanent injunction suits.

When is a writ petition maintainable?

Article 102(2) allows the High Court Division, where no other equally efficacious remedy is provided by law, to direct a person performing functions in connection with the affairs of the Republic or of a local authority to refrain from unlawful acts or to do what the law requires, and to declare an act done without lawful authority to be of no legal effect. Article 102(5) defines "person" to include a statutory public authority.[2] A purely private society or club, acting under its own constitution, is not ordinarily within that definition, so a writ against it alone is weak.

The picture changes when a public authority makes the disputed decision. Writs have succeeded against Ministry of Commerce orders under section 17 of the Trade Organisation Act and against the authorities' failure to act on the Director General's own direction to reconstitute an election board.[4] [6] The Chattogram Chamber litigation also proceeded as a writ, with the Ministry as an appellant before the Appellate Division.[7] In each case the target was the regulator's decision or inaction, not simply the association's internal conduct.

Even against a public authority, an equally efficacious statutory route defeats the writ. The cooperative decision in Writ Petition No. 3871 of 2024 is the clearest recent example.[11] For trade bodies, the government will argue that the section 24 appeal, the Rules' complaint procedure or the section 20 tribunal must be used first.[4] The safest writ is one filed after the statutory route has been tried, or where it is plainly illusory because the decision-maker is the person complained of. Our guide to writ petitions in Bangladesh sets out the procedure.

Standing, parties and timing

Standing in an association election dispute in Bangladesh depends on the right affected. An excluded member relies on membership rights and must prove valid membership on the eligibility date. A rejected candidate challenges the nomination decision. A member who complains of a void election generally has standing; a non-member, former office-holder or rival body usually does not, unless a statute gives it a right or the challenge targets a public authority's decision that affects it. In writ proceedings, the petitioner must be a person aggrieved, except in the narrow categories, such as a challenge to a claim to public office, where Article 102(2)(b) permits an application by any person.[2]

Join every party whose position the order will affect: the association (through the officer its rules or statute identify), the election board and appeal board, the declared winners, and, for trade bodies and cooperatives, the regulator or officer whose decision is in issue. Non-joinder wastes the time that urgency depends on. Equally important is a clean chronology: the date of each notice, list, objection, decision and appeal, with the deadlines that ran from each. In cooperative cases, the 30-day appeal and District Judge windows leave little room for delay.[11]

How to build an association election challenge

The sequence below applies whatever the vehicle, with the forum chosen at the second step. It is designed to give a court or regulator a short, documented case it can act on quickly.

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Two practical cautions apply throughout. First, communications discipline: allegations of vote buying or forgery circulated to members before they are tested invite defamation and disciplinary counter-attacks. Second, data handling: membership registers contain personal data, so request and file only what the dispute requires, redacting irrelevant fields.

For boards and election committees: preventing the dispute

An association election dispute in Bangladesh is usually a governance failure that surfaces at the worst possible moment. Boards can remove most of the grounds of challenge in advance. Fix and publish the eligibility date before the schedule is announced. Publish a draft voter list with a short objection window and give written, reasoned decisions on each objection. Appoint an election board without candidates, nominees or their supporters; for trade organisations the 2025 Rules already require this, according to the Ministry's account.[4]

Serve notice strictly in the mode the articles or rules prescribe, as the Dhaka Club ruling makes plain.[12] Publish nomination requirements in full and apply them uniformly. Keep sealed ballots and a written count protocol. Make any constitutional amendment well before the election cycle and file it where the law requires. Comply with any FBCCI tribunal decision affecting the body; ignoring one led directly to an administrator in 2025.[5] Finally, maintain an authority matrix stating who may sign, bank and contract during a contested handover, so that banks and counterparties have a clear basis for accepting instructions.

Trade bodies whose term has expired should take particular care. An executive committee that simply continues in office past its term, without the extension the rules allow, exposes itself to a section 17 order. In July 2026 the Dhaka Chamber, for one, was still waiting for the amended rules before holding its own election.[9]

What to watch for the rest of 2026

Three developments will shape association election disputes in the coming months. First, the final form of the amendment to the Trade Organisation Rules 2025, which would return much of the election design to each body's articles; elections held under the old rules after the new ones take effect, or vice versa, will be contested.[9] Second, the FBCCI election under the administrator appointed in July 2026, whose 120-day mandate runs to late 2026 and will set the tone for chamber elections nationwide.[10] Third, the steady flow of company-matter decisions on club meetings, which are tightening the rules on notice while discouraging challenges based on harmless irregularity.[12] [13]

For any association election dispute in Bangladesh, the decisive work happens before filing: classifying the body, reading its constitution against the statute, fixing the chronology and choosing a forum that can act before the result becomes irreversible. TRW's constitutional and writ litigation practice advises members, candidates, boards and trade bodies on that choice and on the urgent applications that follow.

Frequently asked questions

Can I stop an association election before polling day?

Sometimes, but courts prefer narrow orders. A temporary injunction requires an arguable case and a balance of convenience in your favour. Preserving ballots, allowing a candidate to stand subject to the outcome, or postponing the declaration is easier to obtain than stopping the vote altogether.[14]

Which court hears an association election dispute in Bangladesh?

It depends on the vehicle. Registered societies usually go to the civil court; clubs incorporated as companies to the High Court Division in company matters; cooperatives through the statutory dispute route; and trade bodies to the Director General, the FBCCI tribunal and, against a public authority, the High Court Division in writ.[11] [12]

Can a member in arrears vote in a registered society election?

Not if the subscription is more than three months in arrears. Section 15 of the Societies Registration Act 1860 provides that such a member cannot vote or be counted as a member for the purposes of the Act.[1]

Does RJSC decide whether a society election was valid?

No. RJSC receives the annual list of the governing body under section 4 of the 1860 Act, which is useful evidence, but it does not adjudicate disputed elections. That is for the civil court.[1]

Can the government take over a chamber or trade association?

Yes. Under section 17 of the Trade Organisation Act 2022 the government can cancel an executive committee and appoint an administrator, who must hold an election within 120 days. Such orders can be challenged; the High Court Division set one aside in December 2024.[5] [6]

Do I have to use the FBCCI tribunal before going to court?

It is often the expected first step for disputes within member bodies, and courts have sent election disputes back to it. In April 2026 the court directed that the Chattogram Chamber dispute be resolved by the FBCCI tribunal by 26 April.[8]

Can I file a writ against a cooperative society election?

Usually not at first. The High Court Division held in July 2025 that the dispute, appeal and District Judge route under sections 50 and 52 of the Cooperative Societies Act 2001 is an equally efficacious remedy, so a writ filed without exhausting it was not maintainable.[11]

Is a writ maintainable against a private club or society?

Not ordinarily. Article 102 reaches persons performing functions connected with the affairs of the Republic or a local authority, including statutory public authorities. A private body acting under its own constitution generally falls outside it, though a regulator's decision about that body may not.[2]

Will a procedural irregularity void a club election?

Not without prejudice. In August 2026 the High Court Division refused to void a club election for an irregular tie-break where the petitioner had not objected at the meeting, and awarded costs against him.[13]

Are the trade organisation election rules changing in 2026?

A draft amendment to the Trade Organisation Rules 2025 was published for comment in July 2026. It would leave voting methods to each body's articles and limit members to one vote per election. Check whether it has been finalised before relying on any schedule.[9]