Analysis of the Votes in the 6th Election of Board of Directors of Mashhad Medical Council in 2013

Background: Medical Council is the largest and oldest non-governmental organization in Iran. This study was aimed to analyze the votes in the election of board of directors of Mashhad Medical Council (MMC) in 2013.
Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on the votes of the voters in the election of MMC. Analysis was exclusively performed on the votes of physicians. Collected data included the number of votes, gender, age, having general doctorate or specialty certificate, being member of the academic staff and governmental employment. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software.
Results: A total of 2706 members including 1603 physicians, 450 dentists, 224 pharmacists, 98 doctorates of laboratory sciences, 301 licensed experts and 90 midwives participated in the election. Proportion of the number of voters to the total members of the MMC was 25% and in different groups was 25% in physicians, 33% in dentists, 25% in pharmacists 62% in doctorates of laboratory sciences, 47% in licensed experts and 4% in midwives. Data analysis of the votes of physicians showed that higher age, having a specialty and being member of the academic staff were the effective factors for a person to be elected. However, gender and governmental employment did not show any impact. After considering the interaction of all factors, the only effective factor with achieving higher votes was being member of the academic staff (P=0.001).
Conclusion: These results suggest that physicians mostly trust academic members to solve their occupational problems. Participation in the election of MMC was about half of the election of general medical council in England where the voting is performed through posting vote papers (ballots) to members’ address. Since the majority of the healthcare professionals in Iran may be involved in hospital, operating room or being on duty in the day of election, sending ballots to them can lead to increased participation in the election of MMC.