ACCA council elections are normally predictable as the leadership under the guise of delegated proxy voting is able to cast hundreds of votes to "appoint" council members. They were confident of the same again and somewhat arrogantly added the name of its Vice-President Douglas Kerr to the ballot paper as a proxy vote holder. The same Douglas Kerr was also a candidate for council elections.

However, from a poll of over 90,000 members, Douglas Kerr only secured 2,781 votes (just over 3% of the possible vote) and was not elected to council. His votes probably included 844 proxy votes cast by ACCA President Jonathan Beckerlegge. The number of proxy votes cast by Kerr in his own favour is not known. Another officeholder, Samuel Wong, was also put up as a proxy vote holder, but the AGM (8 May 2003) was not told of the votes that he might have cast.

All in all this is a slap in the face for the leadership for its inept policies and running of the Association, which has no influence on policy makers in the UK or outside. ACCA members are some of the poorest paid accountants in the UK. The leadership has no policies, no strategy, no vision and certainly does not consult members over the future direction of the Association.

An interesting aspect of the results was the election of candidates from Mauritius and Oman. Tiny Mauritius now has two council members. Whether they had the benefit of proxy votes is not clear. If they did, the leadership is sure to want something in return.

After the AGM, the council met to consider a replacement for Kerr but was unable to agree to anything. That decision is now likely to be made at the June council meeting.

ACCA's slick PR machine is quick to announce the next president but is curiously silent on the demise of its vice-president