Bahá'í elections have no candidates. Every adult Bahá'í in a locality with nine or more adults is eligible for the Local Spiritual Assembly, and every adult votes; the voter writes down nine names in silence, after prayer, and the nine receiving most votes serve for a year. Nomination is forbidden. Campaigning is forbidden. Discussing names before the vote is forbidden. Indicating that one would like to serve, or would prefer not to, is forbidden and can disqualify. There are no parties, no factions, no manifestos and no terms of reference beyond the general instruction to consider loyalty, ability, experience, a well-trained mind and mature judgement. National Assemblies are elected by delegates at annual conventions on the same principles. The result is a governing body composed of people who did not seek the position and cannot decline it lightly, and whose members hold no individual authority whatsoever — an Assembly acts only as a body in session, and an individual member has no standing at all outside it.