CLP rules, can one person hold more than one post?

A number of CLPs are holding their AGMs and I have seen the following question asked, if it’s possible/permitted for one person to hold two positions. The rules are at best unclear but I have come to the conclusion that this should not be allowed.

Let’s do the easy stuff first, it is not permitted that one person holds more than one of the positions of Chair, Secretary & Treasurer as these hold separate responsibilities under the financial compliance policy and regulations.

I also assume its agreed that auditors may not hold a position on the EC. This is just basic.

Other than this, the relevant rules say, C7.VIII

1. The officers of this CLP, the Executive Committee, and two auditors shall be elected at the annual general meeting of this CLP and shall continue in office until replaced or re-appointed.
2. The Executive Officers of this CLP shall be; chair, vice-chair, vice-chair/ membership, secretary, treasurer, policy officer, women’s officer, BAME officer (where established), disability officer (where established), LGBT+ officer (where established), youth officer (where established), trade union liaison officer (where established, who shall be a member of a trade union in accordance with Chapter 2 Clause I.6.B above), political education officer (where established), communications and social media officer (where established). At least three of the first six officers listed above, as well as at least half of the total number of officers, must be women.

Also

6. The Executive Committee shall consist of the Executive Officers, branch secretaries or other representatives elected by each branch and { } members upon such proportionate basis of the whole membership as this CLP may decide, subject to the approval of the NEC.

While 1 & 2 are not necessarily clear they set the clear expectation, through their use of grammar, that each officer is a separate person or a specific job share to be elected/approved at the AGM. The failure to permit people to hold two or more posts is also in my mind significant.

Permitting one person to stand and be elected to more than one office on the EC permits games, it allows factions to put, in the extreme case, one candidate for multiple positions and deny properly nominated people the opportunity to serve on the EC. The fact that such outrageous conclusions can occur means that it cannot be permitted or meant by the rule authors. The rules cannot mean that one person can hold six roles, and so cannot mean that they may hold two.

By the way, everyone agrees that even if permitted, someone holding two posts does not get two votes.

In some small CLPs, there may be problems filling a EC, and/or filling one while meeting the gender quota rules. In this case, I recommend that the EC office should be left vacant and the work done as a portfolio role or assigned to a co-ordinator.

Footnotes

1. I interpret sub clause 6, as meaning that if Branch Secretaries are elected as CLP Officers, the Branch can replace their Secretary on the EC with another person. Others have a different view, that the Branch can choose if they have an EC Rep or send their Secretary.
2. It seems most people, believe that the Branch Secretary elections are subject to a different gender quota and exclude them from the need to be part of the EC gender quotas as they are excluded from the gender quota requirement by C7.VIII.2.
3. It should also be argued that the first vice chair cannot be held by the Chair since they have a duty of substitution for the Chair.