I proposal to create "Unified Rules for Bitcointalk Contests" for preventing manipulation of voting in these contests & for fair play establishing
Contests such as the one you linked to (or at least your discussion of the Bitcointalk Community Awards) aren't official as far as I know, i.e., they're not being sanctioned by Theymos--please correct me if I'm wrong--so I don't think a list of rules, even if they're logical and fair, would have any force behind them.
1) Merit-sourcers do not have the right to hand out merit to their electorate voted for them in contest topics and derivative discussions. If a merit-sourcer wants to say "thank you" to his voter for a vote in its favor, then nothing prevents them from doing it via PM. The usage of their powers by meritsourcers for their own purposes is a dishonest game. If merit-sourcer violates this rule, he should be redtagged as "Voting manupulator".
OK, so I didn't read your thread about the community awards contest (though I will), but it sounds like you think there's a problem with merit sources and some kind of "gangs"? Not sure I agree with that, though I don't doubt there was a lot of merits handed out in the voting thread. Those types of threads always have lots of merits given in them, no matter what is being voted on. I really don't think there was any blatant attempts to sway voters if that's what you're saying, but I'll have to review the thread.
I decided not to cast votes in that contest simply because it was too much brain power to remember who did what last year, and there are so many members deserving of accolades. Plus I didn't think voting for Foxpup in each category would be appropriate. Lol.