As I said, the membership decide who represents them
Not if, as in this case the democratic process has been circumvented by the current incumbents. If there was a need for continuity then ALL the members should have been balloted, not just a few on a show of hands at a racecourse. Either unions are democratic, or they are not, BASSA is quite clearly not. They have had be forced by the courts to run a legal ballot, something it has taken them quite a while to manage. There is clearly no desire in the leadership of BASSA to follow democratic principles, and the constitution of BASSA has let them get away with this. For BASSA members, at the moment, the only people who are deciding who represents them are the current incumbents.