How Intersect came to take up a task no other entity could or would take on

When Cardano's governance framework was codified in the Cardano Constitution, it established a system of checks and balances built on three distinct bodies: DReps, the stake pool operator community, and the Constitutional Committee. Of these, the Constitutional Committee occupies a singular role, to ensure that on-chain governance actions remain consistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution. A committee of this importance cannot appoint itself. It must be elected. Intersect has stepped in to represent the community in facilitating this election, even though it is a Cardano election, not an Intersect one.

The reason is straightforward. Section 3.2 of the Cardano Constitution states:

‘The Cardano Community shall establish and make public a process from time to time for election of members of the CC consistent with the requirements of the Guardrails.’

No other participating entity in Cardano has this in its scope. Intersect exists precisely to fulfill functions that the community needs but that no single actor owns, and the facilitation of Constitutional Committee elections is a clear example of that.

An Unowned Function

In any well-designed governance system, most functions have clear owners. Treasury management belongs to the entities entrusted with funds. Protocol development belongs to engineering teams. But elections are different. A structurally neutral party must conduct them; one that serves no candidate's interests and has no stake in the outcome beyond the integrity of the process.

This is what governance theorists call an unowned function: a critical task that sits between institutional actors, belonging fully to none of them yet essential to all. No ada holder organization can run it without implying a partisan stake in which candidates succeed. No development team or commercial entity is appropriate, an election is not a product launch. The Constitutional Committee cannot administer its own election; that would be the equivalent of asking candidates to count their own votes.

Intersect is the natural steward for this task, and the constitutional framework reflects that.

Capability and Mandate

Intersect does not come to this role unprepared. As a member-based organization, it runs elections for its board, committees, and working groups. That experience has produced genuine institutional knowledge: how to design nomination procedures, establish eligibility criteria, operate secure voting mechanisms, conduct transparent tallying, and reach a community that is geographically dispersed and partly pseudonymous.

What makes Intersect's position distinctive is not capability alone - many organizations can run an election. It is the combination of operational experience and a legitimate mandate from both the community and the constitutional framework.

Stewardship, Not Participation

Facilitating the Constitutional Committee election does not make Intersect a participant in it. Intersect's role is that of a steward: it creates the conditions for the community to exercise its judgment freely and confidently, publishes the rules clearly, enforces them consistently, and steps back when the votes are cast. The outcome is determined entirely by the community.

Intersect’s facilitation of this election process was funded as part of the Intersect budget proposal in 2025. It’s a role Intersect fulfills without commercial gain - running an election generates no additional revenue. It is work Intersect undertakes because it needs to be done, and because without some level of coordination, the Constitutional Committee risks not being updated to a sufficient number in a timely manner, which could stall the Cardano governance system.

Why This Matters

In any governance system, there will always be tasks that are essential but unglamorous - tasks that confer responsibility without reward and require an actor willing to serve rather than profit. How those tasks are allocated and whether they are fulfilled with integrity reflect the overall health of the system.

The Constitutional Committee election is one such task. The community participates in choosing its constitutional guardians, and the integrity of that process depends on a facilitator whose only interest is in running it well. That is the role Intersect is here to fill - holding the governance infrastructure steady so that Cardano can govern itself.

2026 Constitutional Committee Elections

The Intersect facilitated process for a 2026 Constitutional Committee election is underway at the time of writing. Comprised of candidate registration, campaigning and DRep voting for preferred candidates to be put forward in an on-chain committee update governance action. The process is currently taking place on the Hydra voting platform.