Nominations have opened for the first direct election in MFAA history, with the association expecting a turnout of about 30 per cent.
Chief executive Phil Naylor said he had received only positive feedback about the new system, which will allow members to directly elect the board.
“From what I understand, if you get a 30 per cent participation in an association election, that’s a pretty good result,” he told The Adviser.
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“That’s the sort of percentage we’ve experienced over the last seven or eight years in the state elections. My guess is that we would get that for the board election.”
Mr Naylor said he was not concerned at the prospect of an aggregator or franchise putting forward a candidate and then rallying members to vote for that person.
“They can do that, but they could have done that in the past with the state elections and that’s never happened,” he said.
“At the end of the day, individual members vote, and they vote for the people they think are appropriate, irrespective of what their background is.”
Mr Naylor was also untroubled by the thought of an aggregator or franchise getting multiple people on to the board, because he said candidates would act independently.
Under the new constitution, the board will include five elected members, four of whom must be loan writers, or representatives of broking businesses or mortgage manager businesses.
Members will be elected for two-year terms; half the board will stand down each year, although those members will be eligible to renominate.
Ray Slack and Marco Meloni will stand down this year, followed by three members in 2015, two in 2016, three in 2017, and so on.
Nominations close on October 17, with an online election to be held from October 23 if more than two nominations are received.