Treeoflife - thanks, this is a really useful post with many similarities to my friend's case, though so far, despite a disagreement, I don't think there is anything incompetent or illegal going on.

pm133 - very much appreciate your contribution and will pass on your advice, though I don't think as of yet my friend has been offered a chance to re-address the external's criticisms, from what I understand at the moment further revisions aren't on the table until the deadlock can be resolved by a third examiner.

done, hope it helps :)

Hi All,
I'm writing this post on behalf of a good friend, she is an international student (Kurdish) studying at my UK institution. She called me in a panic yesterday (from Kurdistan, where she's been writing revisions for the past year) asking me to try to find out what's going to happen to her and what her options are. What happened is this:
One year ago she passed the viva with revisions (not sure if minor or major) and resubmitted about 2 months ago. At this point while the internal examiner accepted the revisions, but the external did not. Her supervisors are really angry about this and have told her not to worry but they need to find a third examiner to cast the deciding vote. My friend wants to know, if this vote goes against her, what happens next? Is there any possibility of appeal/re-examination etc.?