Voting membership

Who could become a voting member

Someone who meets all six conditions, with equal access for every eligible legal member:

1. Has been formally admitted as a legal member under the registered constitution and entered in the association register through transparent admission and appeals procedures.
2. Is 18 or older, confirmed by a check. Saying so at signup is not enough, and an account with no age on record never counts.
3. Has completed a current authorised identity check. NIN is initially preferred; future legally acceptable alternatives need equivalent adult-age and anti-duplicate safeguards. How verification would work.
4. Has voluntarily activated platform voting and accepted the governing documents. Verification alone never admits anyone to the legal association or activates voting.
5. Registered before the deadline for the ballot in question.
6. Is not under a governance suspension. Any suspension must be proportionate, explained and open to appeal.

The proposed legal structure is Incorporated Trustees under CAMA Part F. Every eligible legal member may activate or deactivate online participation subject to published deadlines. Opting out, hiding a badge or an expired identity check does not itself terminate legal membership. Lawful notice, attendance and voting rights at formal association meetings remain protected, regardless of online opt-in.

Age: accounts and voting are different

Having an account

18 or older during the beta, by your own statement. This is a temporary beta rule: younger people may be able to join later, with safeguards.

Content marked for adults

Never shown to under-18s or to accounts with no age on record, whenever such labels exist.

Voting

Always 18 or older under the draft, confirmed by a check, together with identity verification and an opt-in.

One person, one vote

• Each voting member has exactly one vote in each ballot. Donations, payments, followers, job titles or tokens never add votes.
• One verified person can hold only one active voting membership, whichever account they use. How duplicates would be stopped.
• Ballots are private: who may vote is kept separate from how anyone voted.
• Legal admission and online participation are initially proposed to be free of mandatory membership fees. Contributions remain voluntary, and nobody can purchase additional voting weight.

Timing rules for binding votes

Eligibility freeze

The voter list is fixed 14 days before a ballot opens. Legal admission, verification and online activation must all precede the cutoff; anyone qualifying later can vote in the next ballot.

Account age

An account must be at least 30 days old to vote in a binding election, unless a published transitional rule covers the first election.

First binding vote

Not before at least 100 verified adult legal members have activated voting, the legal requirements are met and the voting controls are tested.

What voting members could do, and must not do

• Governance privileges could only be suspended with documented reasons, a proportionate restriction, an appeal and independent review.
• Disagreeing with, or criticising, whoever runs HeyNaija is never a reason to lose a vote.
• Disputed sanctions involving council elections would go to a separate adjudicator or a panel of people not involved.
• Ordinary moderation of posts and accounts follows the rules and its own appeals, and is never decided by a vote.

The founding term and later elections

Three founders would serve as initial registered trustees for three years from incorporation, subject to legal review. Activation elects two representatives for one-year terms and does not trigger immediate trustee re-election. All three trustee seats open together at founding-term expiry; founders may contest equally. There are no reserved founder seats or lifetime rights. The retained limit is two consecutive full terms per role, then a one-term break; the founding term counts. Representatives are not registered trustees. A platform election cannot itself appoint or remove a legal trustee.