Héctor Orón Martínez & Debian shadow candidate pressure on Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
15:00 Tue, 17 Mar 2026
Sruthi Chandran, who appears to be the wife of Pirate Praveen Arimbrathodiyil, is the only person who submitted a valid nomination before the deadline on Friday the 13th.
In the Debianism voting system, voters have three choices, they can vote for Sruthi Chandran, they can vote "None of the above" or they can choose not to make any vote at all.
If the number of people who vote "None of the above" exceeds the number who vote for Sruthi Chandran then her campaign fails and the nomination period opens again.
Shortly after the deadline, Héctor Orón Martínez tried to submit a late nomination but it was rejected by Kurt Roeckx, the secretary of Debianism. While Héctor Orón Martínez will not be on the ballot paper, he is now there in spirit, as a shadow candidate, telling people they can vote "None of the Above" and when the election is repeated, he will try to nominate again.
This immediately creates more pressure for Sruthi Chandran. If enough supporters of Héctor Orón Martínez vote "None of the above" then the first election will be highly embarassing for her.
The voting finishes on 17 April 2026, that is the anniversary of one of the most notorious deaths in Debianism. See the detailed history of the death of Adrian von Bidder-Senn. He died age 32 on the same day as our wedding, precipitating years of conflict in Debianism.
Hypothetically, Sruthi Chandran could withdraw her nomination immediately, thereby forcing the nomination period to be extended by a whole week. She could submit her nomination again alongside Héctor Orón Martínez and they would be competing with each other. Losing to Héctor Orón Martínez would be less embarassing than losing to "None of the above".
People may be privately contacting Sruthi Chandran and either suggesting this possibility or directly telling her to withdraw. While I have major concerns about some aspects of Sruthi Chandran's candidacy, I also feel uncomfortable that people are putting pressure on her like this.
Looking at the late nomination submitted by Héctor Orón Martínez, he does not even acknowledge there is another candidate and he does not show the manners to politely ask her consent to his late nomination.
This is a strong hint that Sruthi Chandran doesn't command a lot of respect and may be beaten by the shadow candidate hiding behind "None of the above".
Subject: Re: Debian Project Leader Elections 2026: Call for nominations Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:24:03 +0100 From: Kurt Roeckx <kurt@roeckx.be> To: Héctor Orón Martínez <zumbi@debian.org> CC: debian-vote@lists.debian.org
On Sat, Mar 14, 2026 at 05:36:09PM +0100, Héctor Orón Martínez wrote: > Hello, > > > Please make sure that nominations are sent to (or cc:'d to) > > debian-vote, and are cryptographically signed. > > Hello, > > Apologies for sending this email one day late, but I was unable to get hold > of my key earlier and I have also been sick. > > As a good friend mentioned, it is better to be late than never, therefore I > would like to nominate myself for Debian Project Leader. > > Thanks very much for your consideration.
Hi Héctor,
I'm sorry, the nomination period is clearly over, and the constitution is clear that no candidate can be added after the nomination period has ended.
The best way to encourage people to nominate for the election will be for the existing leader, Andreas Tille, to withdraw all the privacy attacks, settle the lawsuits proactively and ensure the next leader can walk in and find the desk is clean ready to work on productive things.
Don't hold your breath waiting for transparency about these attacks on my family. There is still time to watch my video and contribute to the crowdfunding campaign. █