Congratulations María on your return to the Board - or commiserations depending on your perspective!
Appointing María to the vacant seat is the best decision in the circumstances IMO. Not only does she come with strong "community seat" legitimacy as the person who came 'next' in the quite-recent election, she also is coming BACK to the board. The shorter learning-curve means that, during this difficult and important time, she will be able to be an effective board member much faster than someone joining it for the first time.
Running a new and timeconsuming election, now, would only have delayed bringing the board back to full strength without adding any extra legitimacy to the result than appointing María already brings. And, I say this as the person she beat to 'third place' in the 2013 election which saw her elected to the board in the first place :-) :-) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2013/Results
- Liam / Wittylama