Election Process

Rules and Method of Election for the First Elected International Committee of Phoenician and Punic Studies

The Committee

The committee will consist of 5 elected members, to which one representative from the previous and one from the next local organizing institution of the International Congress of Phoenician and Punic Studies will be added, making a total of 7 persons.
The term of each committee lasts for the interval between two congresses.
A committee member may be elected for multiple terms, with a maximum of 2 consecutive terms.
Membership on the committee does not confer any privileges, financial or otherwise, to elected members.

The Candidates

Eligibility requires holding an academic, governmental, or equivalent professional position.
Candidates must choose to stand for election in one geographically defined research area, based on the following classification:

West Mediterranean (Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands)
North Africa (from the Maghreb to the Nile Valley)
Central-East Mediterranean (Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, other Central Mediterranean islands, Italian and Greek Peninsulas, Crete, Aegean Islands)
Eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Anatolia, Levant)
Other cases (Multiregional or non-geographically defined research)

By the extended deadline of 30 September 2026, the following candidacies were received. Clicking on the candidate's names will take you to their statement:

Marc Abou-Abdallah eastern Mediterranean
University of the Holy Spirit, Jounieh, Lebanon
marcabd@hotmail.com
submitted 16 June 2026

Carla Del Vais central-eastern Mediterranean
Università di Cagliari
cdelvais@unica.it
submitted 1 September 2026

Giuseppe Garbati central-eastern Mediterranean
CNR
giuseppe.garbati@cnr.it
submitted 26 September 2026

Maroun Khreich eastern Mediterranean (Levant)
Lebanese University and St/ Joseph University, Beirut
maroun_khreich@hotmail.com
submitted 21 August 2026

Carolina López Ruiz multiregional
University of Chicago
lopezruiz.academic@gmail.com
submitted 15 August 2026

Francisco Núñez Calvo multiregional
University of Warsaw
f.nunezcalvo@uw.edu.pl
submitted 17 June 2026

Federica Spagnoli central-eastern Mediterranean
La Sapienza University
federica.spagnoli@uniroma1.it
submitted 24 September 2026

The Election and the Electors

To qualify as a voter, one must either be a participant in the Malta International Congress or have registered as an eligible voter with the transitional committee in response to one of our several mailings.
Voting for the new committee will take place in person at the Malta International Congress, although alternative ways of voting will be made available.
Each voter may cast a single ballot, selecting five candidates, choosing one candidate for each of the five areas in which the candidates stand.

The Process

Both in‑person voting and the alternative forms of voting will take place during the days of the Malta Congress, in a manner that will be announced in advance.

Counting and appointment

The votes will be counted immediately after the closing of the voting period, with measures in place to ensure transparency. The results will in any case be communicated at the Malta Congress, before its closure.
The 5 researchers who receive the highest number of votes within their respective area of affiliation will be declared members of the new committee.
If no candidates are presented in one or more areas of affiliation, the remaining seats (up to the total of 5 elected members) will be filled by the candidates with the highest number of votes among those remaining in the other areas.
If, at any point in these procedures, a tie occurs between candidates, one of them will be selected by lot.
To these 5 elected members, one member of the organizing committee of the Malta Congress will be added, as well as—once known—one member of the organizing committee of the subsequent congress, both designated by their respective local committees.

Beginning of the functions of the elected committee

The newly elected committee will begin its functions immediately after its election, and in any case before the end of the closing session of the Malta Congress. At that moment, the ad interim committee will cease to function, thus bringing the transition process towards an elected international committee to a close.
In addition to promoting and supporting the organisation of the next international congress, the new committee may legitimately assume new functions, such as the creation of a scholarly association or other institutionalised forms of support for Phoenician and Punic studies.
The elected committee may also freely define its own internal procedures and modify the method for electing future committees.