By Monday 24th February Andrew Malcolm had collected 54 nomination signatures from Oxford graduates (that is, people who regarded themselves in good faith as Oxford graduates), and, having been informed that two more had been posted directly to the university Registry, he e-mailed his list of nominators to Henry Hardy, a potential nominator who is also a member of Oxford's Congregation. He asked Hardy if he would get the list of nominators checked against the confidential card-index held (and only held) by the Registry to ensure that it included no 'duds' and that there would therefore be no last-minute shortfall of the 50-signature 'target'. He was intending to travel from Brighton to deliver his bundle of nomination papers on the following (deadline) day, 25th February.
On 24th February, Hardy telephoned the Registry and was advised, by a Rebecca Gibb, that the Registry could that day run such a check of the list, but was reluctant to do so because it would involve the Registry in "checking the names twice" (unexplained). The Registry, she said, would prefer to wait until Malcolm's nomination papers were actually submitted on the following day, adding that they could then be checked on the spot. In other words, the Registry instigated a last-minute rush.
On 25th February at 2.45 pm Malcolm arrived at the Registry with Hardy and another witness to be told that, after all, his nominators' names could not be checked on the spot against the card-index, thereby unexpectedly rendering uncertain his position vis-à-vis the 50-signature 'target'. Hardy at once signed and two other signatures were collected within half-an-hour.
By 5.00 pm the Registry stated that four of the now 59 signatories were ruled out on the grounds "could not be identified", one "signed twice" and ten "examinations passed but degree not conferred", bringing the total down to 44 and failing the candidature. Malcolm at once asked for the names of the nominators ruled ineligible, and at 4.00 pm on the following day, 26th February, the Registry faxed him their list.
Of the ten alleged non-conferred examination-passers (NCEPs, marked * below), two had already applied to have their degrees conferred, and seven of the remaining eight (marked ** below), whether or not believing themselves already conferred, in any case at once entered themselves in a one-off conferral ceremony scheduled for 11th March specially convened in order to widen participation in the chancellorship election. This brought Malcolm's total of validated signatories back up to 51, and arguably 54. In a faxed letter of 27th February, the Registry clerk, a Mr Jeremy Weale, stated that "he would take advice" on whether this would therefore validate the candidature.
Over the next few days the university Registrar David Holmes* refused to allow Malcolm's candidature, denied the 54 nominators any appeal procedure and declined to give any reason why the nominators entered in the special conferral ceremony of 11th March were still ineligible. *Remember him - the man who lately swore a 150-page affidavit about Alan Ryan but, er, omitted to mention Ryan's university lecturing, supervision work and committee posts? (explanation)
On 8th March the inaugural meeting was held in Oxford of MALCOLM'S FIFTY to see if/how the Registrar's disqualification of Malcolm's candidature might legally be challenged. It was concluded that there were strong grounds (irrationality, legitimate expectation) to support a claim for a Judicial Review seeking the postponement and rerunning of the election, but, on advice, the costs implications of such a claim (with the university certain to unleash a battalion of QCs) were held to be too risky. Meanwhile, over fifty members of Convocation have been dienfranchised.