OK, the mechanics in NSW are thus:
The owners corporation elects the committee at the AGM and the committee then elects the office-bearers. At any point in the year until the next AGM the members of the strata committee can declare an office “vacant” and elect someone else to it. That person remains on the committee, however. It requires a special resolution by owners at a general meeting (75 per cent of people voting) to remove a committee member mid-term.
Drilling deeper, at the AGM, the process is
- The chairman calls for nominations for the committee
- The owners vote on how many people they want on the committee: maximum nine, minimum 1.
- If there are more nominations than agreed numbers on the committee, an election is held.
- The election is conducted by people writing the names of the candidates they want, up to the maximum, on a BLANK piece of paper.
- Unit entitlements count as every election is effectively a poll vote (so it’s good to have friends, literally, in high places).
- Any election that doesn’t follow the above process is invalid.
By the way, co-owners can’t self-nominate (your co-owner has to nominate you) and you can’t be nominated by someone who is standing for election themselves. More than one person from the same lot can’t be on the committee and you don’t have to be an owner to serve on the committee so long as you are nominated by one. There are other restrictions too arcane to go into here.