Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024
In 2024, the term of 4 (four) Community- and Affiliate-selected Trustees on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees will come to an end. The Board invites the Wikimedia movement to participate in this year’s selection process and vote to fill those seats.
The Elections Committee will oversee this process with support from Foundation staff.
Preliminary Results
6000 community members from more than 180 wiki projects have voted, and the following four candidates were the most voted:
While these candidates have been ranked through the vote, they still need to be appointed to the Board of Trustees. They need to pass a successful background check and meet the qualifications outlined in the Bylaws. New trustees will be appointed at the next Board meeting in December 2024.
Sankey diagram
Below is a Sankey diagram that visually represents the vote transfers
Candidates
The Elections Committee and Wikimedia Foundation staff verify the candidates based on candidate criteria.
Eligible candidates
The following candidates are verified eligible:
- Bobby Shabangu (Bobbyshabangu (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Christel Steigenberger (Kritzolina (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Deon Steyn (Oesjaar (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Erik Hanberg (Erikemery (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Farah Jack Mustaklem (Fjmustak (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Lane Rasberry (Bluerasberry (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Lorenzo Losa (Laurentius (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Maciej Artur Nadzikiewicz (Nadzik (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Mohammed Awal Alhassan (Alhassan Mohammed Awal (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (Rosiestep (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Tesleemah Abdulkareem (Tesleemah (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
- Victoria Doronina (Victoria (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA))
Voting method and platform
Single Transferable Vote on SecurePoll will be used in this year's election.
For candidates
Apply to be a candidate
Shortlisting process
In the 2024 election, there will be four open seats. In a previous cycle when there were four open seats, there was an overwhelming number of candidates for voters to review. The Elections Committee and Board of Trustees determined 12 candidates would be a reasonable number for voters to review. If there are more than 15 eligible candidates as determined by the Elections Committee, a shortlisting process will occur. The process will aim to shortlist 12 candidates, and these 12 candidates will be running in the community voting phase. If there are 15 or fewer candidates, there will be no shortlisting process. The process would be a lot of work for Affiliates only to eliminate three or fewer candidates for community voting round.
Community questions for candidates
In each selection process, the community has the opportunity to submit questions for the Board of Trustees candidates to answer. The Election Committee selects questions from the list developed by the community for the candidates to answer. Candidates are only required to answer these selected questions. This year, the Election Committee will select five (5) questions for the candidates to answer. The selected questions may be a combination of what’s been submitted from the community, if they’re alike or related. Once selected, each question is broken into a subpage to help with readability.
Conversation with the Candidates
- A panel interview will be hosted with all shortlisted candidates. This panel will be available virtually with interpretation; and recorded for those who can’t attend live.
- To ensure equity, the questions will be shared with candidates ahead of time so they can prepare. Support staff will facilitate to make sure there is equal airtime for every candidate.
- Video conversation on YouTube, timestamps 1:49:00 to 2:33:00.
Campaign rules
For voters
Voter eligibility guidelines
For a quick verification of whether you are eligible to vote or not, please use the AccountEligibility tool.
For communities
Frequently asked questions
- Main article: Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/FAQ
Election volunteers
Election Volunteers are a bridge between the Elections Committee, the support team and the movement. If you would like to support this, please sign up here.
Timeline
| Phase | Milestone | Timeline | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidacy Process & Campaigning | Announcement of upcoming election process | March 12, 2024 |  Completed
|
| Call for Candidates (3 weeks) | May 8, 2024―May 29, 2024 | Completed
| |
| Call for Questions (5 weeks) | May 8, 2024―June 12, 2024 | Completed
| |
| Verification of candidates based on legal and candidate criteria | May 30, 2024―June 7, 2024 | Completed
| |
| Shortlisting candidates (if applicable) | June 2024 |  Unnecessary
| |
| EC shortlists the questions for candidates from community members | June 13, 2024―June 19, 2024 | Completed on June 21, 2024
| |
| Candidates answer shortlisted questions from community members | June 20, 2024―July 1, 2024 | Completed
| |
| Pre-onboarding and campaign period | June 25, 2024―August 26, 2024 | Completed
| |
| Wikimania 2024 session: "Meet the 2024 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees candidates" | August 10, 2024 | Completed (recording)
| |
| Voting & Results | Vote launches | September 3, 2024 at 00:01 UTC | Completed
|
| Vote closes | September 17, 2024 at 23:59 UTC | Completed
| |
| Scrutiny, tally, verification, and preliminary announcement of voting results | September 18, 2024― |
Completed
| |
| Preliminary announcement of results | Completed
| ||
| Confirmation | Background check and confirmation of selected candidates; Board of Trustees discusses candidates | October 2024―November 2024 | Completed
|
| Board of Trustees vote on selected candidates | December 2024 Board meeting | Completed
|