Post Race Analysis - SRC Exec/Officers

Having taken a look at the results from the top of ballot paper, tonight's results look elsewhere and take a look (albeit briefly at times) into what it might mean for the year ahead. First up is the top of the SRC - the Executive and the SRC Officers.

With three convenerships returned unopposed, we've had three candidates who we (as an electorate) don't really know what they stand about or stand for. Laura & Thomas are as red as they come, and I'd be surprised if they weren't actually card carrying members of the Labour Party. Laura's behaviour towards some of the other candidates in this elections means that I'm very sceptical of her, and what she might do. She's also a first year currently and I wonder how much influence she will be able to have over others as External Convener - I also wonder what her leadership skills are like. As I said before - if I wasn't a final year student, I'd have relished taking on Laura in battle for External Convener. Thomas, as I've already said, I'm not totally convinced has the character to do the job in hand. Jonathan's problem as PG Convener, is that currently he is a Committee of 1. But knowing Jonathan, I'm sure he'll make something of it.

That leaves us with three other elected members of the Exec.

First off, SRC Editor. In what could be the last person in the role, Guy Bromley took the election by some margin from Ross Cullen. Guy is, of course, a member of the Labour Club, which can't have done him any harm, but to be honest this won't have single handedly won him the election. My best guess, is that he had a website, whilst his opponent didn't, although Ross did have some interesting posters. Either way, Guy's in the job. The SRC Editor appears to do bugger all these days, and I'd be interested to see what Guy makes of the role - he can't be any worse in the job than the current incumbent. Guy has given us some results as Academic Services Convener, so maybe that will continue as SRC Editor.

Welfare Convener also went to a Labour Club man, but the race between Nick & Adam was more a microcosm of the election as a whole: Labour man against a man put up by the Greens. Well, it was close to that. Adam & Nick are apparently good mates, so maybe Adam'll contribute ideas to Nick, but either way this could be interesting. Nick has - in some circles - been described as a man who is just "a brain dead lump", which I feel is slightly harsh. I hope that Nick remembers that he has a whole University of students to represent and that welfare is a universal issue, not one based on any of the usual discriminants. However, what is interesting is that he has loyalty to both Tom & Josh: so is he really going to be independent on the Exec, or will he take orders from one, the other, or both?

Teaching & Learning Convener had originally 5 candidates, which dropped to 4 after Stewart Martin's withdrawn papers. Leaving 4 candidates, all of whom stood on similar issues, the decision for voters was always going to be a tough one. I was surprised Leah polled as few votes as she did - proving looks aren't everything, and proving I can be wrong; I do think her poor showing was down to her effectively withdrawing from competing in the race. Leaving three candidates, Emma's re-election posters no doubt didn't do anything but help her; although the last person to ask for re-election was Josh MacAlister in the External Convenor elections last year ... and he lost. As it was, Emma romped to victory, leaving Stephen & Ondrej in her wake. I expect Emma to do more of the same as this year - although hopefully a few more appearances at SRC won't go a miss.

That leaves the 6 non-Assoc Exec members of the SRC Exec, being a 4 Labour, 2 Independent split. More of which in a later post.

So the officers. Matt Mole was returned unopposed, and Schools & Induction Officer is a position I hope he really gets involved in.

Accommodation Officer saw a tight battle between Sam Hansford and Greta Dargie. I'm personally disappointed that Greta didn't get in: she's further along in her Uni career, and has clearly shown her involvement and wanting to get involved in the issues after her General Meeting Motion on Grant Management - something that took a lot of balls and hard work. Sam, it seems, is a P&P/Green leaning lackey, and has been elected after a very good leafleting campaign.

Community Officer saw a win Jude Harrison by some margin. As I said in earlier posts, I did not think it was right to re-elect Joe after doing bugger all this year. I honestly cannot think what impact he has had, and I hope that this fresh set of ideas will have some impact on the role. Jude's victory was a surprise in only so far as how large it had been. Again, this could be down to a good Facebook group, and his Labour party support. Either way, his manifesto did look good, and this may well have caused his win.

Finally, in this section, there is the Equal Ops Officer. Nahuel beat Kiril by a comfortable margin. I can't claim to know anything about either of these guys, but like Guy, this could be the last year for the position, so I wonder what they will do with the job. With Tom French in the VPS seat, he will no doubt push for reforms to the Liberation Groups, which Nahuel will be heavily involved with. Time will tell to see how far these reforms go.

Live Results - SRC Exec

Live blogging from the corner of the debating hall.

Turnout is up by some 62% according to Tim Goodwin, with 5442 people voting. First result was out at 2120, some 50 minutes later than originally scheduled.

First elected was Emma Chapman who won the T&L race over two rounds - I appear I was wrong, and Leah Volger didn't attract nearly as many votes as expected.

Next up was the hottly contested Welfare battle with Nick Ward romping home over Adam Knight. First blood to Labour.

SRC Editor next with Guy Bromley taking the win over Ross Cullen. Second Blood to Labour.

Ellie Price wins Societies Secretary. One for the greens.

Finance Senior Member has also been announced - Neil wins over Tim, in a battle much closer than anyone in the hall expected with 1015 votes playing 969.

And the big one is about to be announced. President coming up.

Looking at ... The SRC

Continuing on the theme of looking at the bits of the Students' Association, next on the ballot paper is the Students' Representative Council. Starting on a very poor note is the fact that three of the convenorships are uncontested.

Whilst I'm not surprised that Postgraduate Convenor (or the Maggie Chapman Memorial Seat as I've called it before) is uncontested. The fact that External and Academic Services are unchallenged bothers me. Had I not been graduating, Laura Baker would have faced a fight on her hands from me. I also struggle to believe that AS has no competition, whereas Teaching & Learning has 5 people standing - I realise the two are not equal, but it is a shame that possibly so many good candidates may miss out. I'm disappointed that Thomas Graham has got the job. As far as I'm concerned, he has shown a great deal of arrogance at the SRC this year (not least with his very personal attack on me in January - both uncalled for and unnecessary) and I worry how this will translate onto a role on the Executive of the SRC. Both Thomas & Laura are 1st years, and so how this will translate to a stable SRC Executive waits to be seen - and both (interestingly) are aligned with the Labour Students group: it's a point I'll come back to later.

The Teaching & Learning race is surely going to be very interesting. Emma Chapman (the current incumbent) who has done a job this year that was always going to be hard in the wake of Ross Neilson and Tim Cobbett, takes on four young pretenders. Leah Volger - despite only being a candidate for two days - is the one I have heard the most chat about. And despite us all wanting to be an issue about the issues, all I have heard so far is about her looks - even Emma commented that this what she had heard. Clearly it is going to be a vote winner with the men, and noting how few female candidates there are this year, this could be a focal point. Still looking beyond Emma & Leah, the three candidates are all well versed in EUSA. Stephen's (also coming from the Labour camp) website is straight to the point, as is Ondrej, whereas Stewart's site is still to come. With so much at stake, one of these candidates will be looking to step forward soon.

Welfare Convenor is also looking like a very messy race. On the EUSA Forums there is plenty of discussion and mud slinging going on. It appears that Nick (Labour camp) and Adam are taking pot shots at each other through the medium of their supporters. I can't claim to have read either websites in detail or the forum thread, but Adam's simple snappy website (complete with requisite puns) takes on a very airy fairy website from Nick - he seems to be more interested in photos that policy. SRC Editor is an election between SRC stalwart, Guy Bromley (Labour camp) and Ross Cullen. I don't know anything about Ross, and the lack of website plays very well for Guy - although his site is just a shell currently. It'll need more progress from both candidates before people will really care.

In the officers section, Accommodation is a three-way battle and includes Greta Dargie who went up against Grant Management. Simple name recognition could do the trick here, although it has to be noted that her two opponents - Sam Hansford and Fiona Jarvie - both have websites to help their support and campaign.

Community Officer - well I've mentioned that I think Joe Calvert's candidacy is a joke, because people who haven't done anything shouldn't be re-elected. Joe hasn't done anything and it beggars belief that he's standing again. With both Jude Harrison & Sarah Nash, I simply don't know enough about them. I've heard that Jude either sits in the Tom/Adam camp or the Josh/Labour camp, but I'm not qualified enough to say which - although I think it may be the later, as Joe seems to be supporting Tom, and I doubt Tom/Adam would allow two of "their people" to stand against each other. Either way, manifestos will be important.

Equal Ops Officer - a position that was to be done away with in the Constitutional Amendments that have twice not been passed by a quorate General Meeting - is also a three-way contest. All seem to be supporting the same sort of ideals and I'd be interested in anything any of them can say which is fresh and new.

Down the School Reps list, elections are taking place in Biological Sciences (only two candidates have website, but all are in the same year), History & Classics (with Ben Politowski putting in his parachute here), Law (with a massive 5 candidates), Management & Economics (with an even more massive 6 candidates), "Philosophy, Psychology & Language" (with 5 candidates) and Social & Politics studies (with Josh MacAllister also putting in his parachute). Pleasingly, every school bar one has a representative.

The real battle will be in the Ordinary member elections - inevitably with such a large field (some 30 candidates), there is a lot of double ticketing. A quick glance of the candidates show that something like a third of them are standing elsewhere on the SRC ballot, which dramatically shrinks the voting field (obviously something we will only find out post election). Also in the mix are four current/past sabbaticals, which will have its own dynamic on the electoral result.

With so many elections, Thursday 1st March's count looks to stretch long into the night.

Quirky Tuesday

If Monday was busy, Tuesday was definitely quieter. With the main 'action' happening in the Law Council, it was only the very end of the day that brough some 'real' action with a bit of a surprise.

Chris Williams (previously of Student Newspaper) fame, is standing for President. No website as yet, so a trip to the paper's website shows some very varied and quite interesting commentary on a variety of issues. Some of my sources are suggesting he is running as a joke candidate, but could this be the person that people who hate Labour, hate P&P/Green or hate "political students"/"EUSA Hacks", turn to? Or will there be another Presidential candidate? Word has it that there could well be - and I'm quite interested in what's still to come. Student issues have to come first, and I was worried that if it was just "Red" Josh v. "Green" Adam, politics would be the only thing discussed.

Finance Committee now has an election (including Guy Bromley now involved ... can he do better than his poor performance in this last year?).

The only two other interesting nominees are Peter Harris - who was promised yesterday - will be standing for the SRC Ordinary positions (further worrying me about Old Sabbs taking over the 'ordinary' positions) and Emma Chapman making a brave move for re-election. It's not often that you see Convenors take a second bite of the cherry (except Maggie Chapman, but that's a different story), and she is moving into a very crowded election. How many T&L issues are there?

Less than 12hrs of the EUSA office being opened before nominations close. What shocks are in store?

A Week is a Long time ... (SRC)

Whilst the Association Exec seems to be ticking along, the SRC jobs also appear to be filling up.

The SRC Exec has a number of candidates (many of the Labour ilk it appears), with some interesting rumours abound. Take SRC Editor - currently two candidates: Guy Bromley and Ross Cullen. The word on the vine (if you listen to certain sources - and remember this Blog is just putting all the information it hears out there) is that Guy was told not to stand for VPAA this year as the field is crowded, and no one would want a Labour Slate ... which is interesting seeing as Bruce Golding is now standing. Listen more closely and you'll hear that Tim Gee is wanting to stand for this position too - firstly because he isn't too fond of Guy, and also because he likes being on Exec. This brings up an interesting debate in how much former Sabbs should be getting involved within the Association - should they be giving their successors more room to breathe?

T&L Convenor is also getting busy: 3 candidates so far, and having spoken to the current incumbent (Emma Chapman), it appears that she will run too. This is sure to be a technical race, as the candidates all appear to be qualified in various ways, and all have different skills. I'd be interested to read the manifestos.

I'd be disappointed if Nick Ward, Thomas Graham and Laura Baker all get an upposed race, as we need real debate. Laura and Thomas are first years, and I'd contest that they may not be the best people for such a job, especially Laura for External. However, I'll wait to pass judgement until I know more.

On the officers, the most interesting is Community Officer. Now, I'm going to be blunt here: what has Joe Calvert done? He appears to have done nothing in the SRC all year, and so I'm going to ask - why is he standing again? I'm not Joe's biggest fan (cards on the table and all), but seriously, why? His opponents could be very able to challenge him, and again mainfestos should make for a competitive election.

I'm also tempted to start a sweep on the number of SRC Ordinary Candidates.