5 March 2000
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dear

Thank you for your letter of 3rd March.

Throughout this correspondence I have requested information. However, you have failed to provide it.

1. Your previous correspondence stated that ACCA had obtained a legal opinion. As you sought to discipline me with this opinion I requested a copy. You have failed to respond to such a request.
 
2. You claim that before the deadline for the submission of the election papers, council prohibited the mention of web site addresses in election statements. Such a statement was not included in the information pack that you mailed to candidates. Nor has such a policy, to the best of my knowledge, ever been published in the ACCA magazine. Despite requests, you have failed to provide a copy of the relevant council minute.
 
3. Your previous letter stated that ACCA council made a decision to prohibit the mention of web site addresses at its “last meeting”. This meeting was on 17th February, nearly two-weeks after the deadline for submitting the election papers. The decision appears to have been made retrospectively and after seeing my election address. Since one-third of the council membership is standing for the election, they clearly have a conflict of interest. I requested information in my letter of 2nd March but you have ignored my request.
 
4. The prohibition has not been communicated to other election candidates. Seemingly, ACCA is engaged in a discriminatory policy of devising rules that only apply to me.
 
 5. I have drawn your attention to examples of previous ACCA election addresses that invite ACCA members to seek information from other places, should they so wish. The 1999 election statements were included in a booklet that contained the ACCA web site address. This web site contains information about the policies, goals, processes, politics and achievements of ACCA council - one-third of whom were seeking to be (re)elected to council.  The mention of a web site address in my election statement does not  impose any costs upon the Association. The mention of a web site has the potential to aid democratic debates and choices and is permitted in the elections of ‘public bodies’.

In the absence of your failure to provide me with the information that I have repeatedly requested, I must again request  that  “In line with previous years, I would wish to have my election address published in full and without any part of it deleted or censored”. As a ‘public body’ ACCA should conduct its elections in accordance with public norms. ACCA officials do not have any right whatsoever to violate my human rights and unilaterally revise my election address, especially as it meets the 180 word limit requirement.
 
 

Yours sincerely