And the tape's up ...

So the field has been finalised, the starter has let them off and the tape's up as the runners and riders head off "into the country" on the first bit of this marathon race. (I promised a Grand National analogy every now and again - if anyone has any ideas how I can work in 'Open Ditch', 'Beecher's Brook', 'The Chair' or 'The Water Jump' let me know ...).

Taking a look at the bare numbers makes for an interesting comparison:
174 Candidatures this year, down from 181 last year
109 Candidates standing this year, down from 110 last year
25 Positions Elected, equal to the 25 Positions last year
50 Seats Contested, up from 47 Seats Contested last year
31 Seats left vacant, up from 21 Seats left vacant last year

From this, it seems that not much has changed in the top few lines (in fact, considering I stood last year for 5 candidatures, the stats are near enough identical). The only real disappointment is the fact that there has been a 50% rise in seats left vacant this year, because there is more competition in certain areas than ever before. I'm sure the Association Exec (the Sabbs) will feel disappointed that so many more seats are left unfilled, but they can be pleased that involvement in the elections hasn't significantly dropped: after all, last year's election came on the back of a pretty divisive EUSA anti-Tory/anti-Boris campaign which enraged a lot of people to the extent they stood.

The list of extra candidates on the last day is too numerous to mention here, but its interesting to see that there are elections in areas where you wouldn't expect it - like Senior Member of Finance, Senior Member of Committee of Management, Debates Committee and Debates Convenor.

And for those of you who were trying to work out how many Ordinary Members of SRC were going to stand - the answer is 32 (although one is now elected elsewhere, and one has withdrawn). Time to start working out your top 30 in order ...