RCVS & VN Councils elections results

The votes for the 2012 RCVS Council and Veterinary Nurse (VN) Councils elections have been counted and the results are now in.

There was a record number of candidates standing in the RCVS Council election this year, and the results in the end were much closer than usual, although the turnouts were low once again.

Two candidates entirely new to the Council have been elected, one of whom - Amanda Boag - received the highest number of votes.

Two candidates entirely new to the Council have been elected, one of whom - Amanda Boag - received the highest number of votes. The other - Chris Barker - also did well, coming in third place overall.

Three existing RCVS Council Members have been re-elected for a further four years, and Stephen May, who was formerly an appointed Council Member from the Royal Veterinary College, was also voted onto Council for the first time.

Of the three candidates standing for election to VN Council, one existing Member - Kathy Kissick - has been returned, and one new member - Elizabeth Figg - has been elected.

All successful candidates will take up or resume their seats at RCVS Day on 6 July 2012.

Turnouts for both elections continued to be disappointing, with just 3,625 veterinary surgeons (15.1%) and 743 veterinary nurses (7.5%) choosing to exercise their right to vote.

In 2011, voting figures were 3,887 (15.9%) and 723 (7.6%), respectively, so whilst 20 more VNs voted this year, there was a very slight drop in turnout in real terms.

Veterinary surgeons' and veterinary nurses' use of online and text voting, rather than postal voting, increased again this year from 25% to 30.6%, and 12.9% to 20%, respectively. 

The full results of the two elections are as follows:

RCVS Council election

 *confirmed by a recount

VN Council election