One person, one vote.
Yes we are supposed to have a democratic model, but it is only in name.

For example: Do you know that your vote is worth only one eight of a similar member in Northern Region? Would it be a surprise that as a consequence, a typical Northern region chapter gets four times the per member financial allocation?

Even when you do vote, what assurance do you have that your vote will be counted? If you try (as I did last year) to observe the counting of the ballots, you will quickly find that PEO staff will prevent you from:
I would have liked to have shown you a photograph of the room, but of course, I was not allowed to take a picture! As long as we are kept in the dark, faith, hope and blind belief are necessary ingredients in PEO's "open and transparent governance".

I have raised this issue in public at the PEO AGM; the past president is on record in Engineering Dimensions as wanting this changed, but it still persists. There must be a good reason to have this dark cloud over our heads.

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting. -- Alfred Emanuel Smith


This time we have competition only for the top positions. Before I jumped in, there was to be a one horse race for each regional councillor position. A smaller version of the Cuban style elections where the voters get to choose 641 candidates for 641 positions.

Election Victory For Royal Nepal Govt.
nepal election cartoon
Their Achievement:
Kamal Thapa, the Home Minister of the royal Nepal Cabinet and Chairman of the "victorious" pro-government faction of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) in the municipal election lifts the Award (that reads "20%"). He asks: "Is this small?"
The cameraman tries to console him by saying, "Small? No. It's the achievement of our irregularities, ah...sorry... sincere efforts."
Context: The Feb 8. election in which 20% of voters participated.
Cartoon by Batshyaan via Kantipur
And yet, PEO blames you, the members for not voting or participating in the governance of our profession. Where is the evidence that your vote counts?

It is sad indictment of PEO's democracy that a dirt poor country has achieved a higher rate of voter participation in their FIRST attempt in a democratic election than PEO can.

After many years of hand wringing, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, START, START II, CBTF, etc. the politics is such that all they have achieved is a little tinkering at the edges of the Chapter boundaries. How can we expect the beneficiaries of the current cockeyed system to actually vote themselves out of a free lunch?

The basic problem still remains. The fictional democracy we have is carefully managed by the PEO old boys club.