Members of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians have voted down a proposal to oust its president-elect from her role, but there’s still one more vote set to happen before the year is out.

Close to one third of the college’s 30,000-strong membership base voted on three items at Extraordinary General Meetings held on Friday October 31. All three failed motions to meet the requisite votes of approval needed to pass.

There were 9,502 votes cast on the proposal to change the college’s constitution to separate the roles of board chair and president – a proposal the board had backed as integral to improving the organisation’s governance practices.

However, only 43.9% of votes were in favour of the change, with 56.1% voting against. The motion required 75% in favour to be carried.

RACP president-elect Dr Sharmila Chandran also survived a motion to remove her from her role, with only 35.1% of the 8,291 participating voters in favour. This motion also required a 75% yes vote to pass.

A third EGM resolution, to remove Dr Nick Buckmaster as director of the college, also fell short of the required 50% vote needed to pass, with 26.4% of members in favour.

Professor Jennifer Martin, current RACP president, had supported the motion to separate the board chair and president roles.

The vote results come after months of tensions at the college around the future of its leadership and governance practices.

Conflicts boiled over into the public domain in August when the RACP board passed a vote of no-confidence in Dr Chandran as president-elect of the college [link here].

The Australian Medical Council has told the limbic it is monitoring the developments, but said it had been kept well informed by the RACP’s CEO [link here].

While the final vote result appeared to comfortably defeat each motion, the path from here for leadership at the college is not yet fully settled.

One more extraordinary general meeting has been called for November 26 to vote on Dr Chandran’s removal as president-elect and board director.

This motion will require more that 50% of voting members to back it in order for it to pass.

A stop bullying order filed by Dr Chandran in the Fair Work Commission is still yet to be decided.

The limbic has contacted RACP president, Professor Jennifer Martin, and Dr Chandran, for comment on the outcome of the EGM votes.