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 - CoM and Finance

So, whilst the Tom French debacle rumbles on in the debating hall, more results have been announced.

Union Exec sees the return of James Wallace (maybe he will put some sense in to Mr French), Ellie Price gets upgraded from 1st Year Rep to full member and also Pete Harris in his return appearance from Canada.

Next up are the "junior" positions on Finance for full time students. Winning this are Guy Bromely on a massive first preference lead, followed by Monisha and completing the trio is Jonathan Hogg who had a massive battle with Ondrej Nenadl, with the 3rd position swapping between them.

And then comes Committee of Management. Winning here, with the largest first preference vote is Tim Goodwin, followed by Rosy Burgess and then Tim Gee - although the process was quite slow with a small amount of transfers each time. I'm thrilled Rosy is on CoM, and I know that as Bar Staff she'll make a great impact.

Still to come SRC Ordinary and VPSA.

Busy Monday

The Second week of nominations seems to have opened with a big bang, with 20 candidatures from 10 candidates going in for a variety of positions across the scale. This first post will cover the new additions to the runners and riders (makes me sound a bit like Peter O'Sullivan before the Grand National - its an analogy I'm sure I can work in many times in the next three weeks).

First up, at the 'top of the ballot' Will Searle (VPSA Candidate) has a Website up - http://www.willsearle.110mb.com/ - although its currently a holding page, with the interesting slogan of Give EUSA the Searle of Approval. Opposite him in the 'red corner' is Gordon, whose Facebook Group (this year's must have accessory) tells us that his website is "nearing completion". More on Facebook Groups later.

Also near the top of the ballot is the first Finance Committee candidates. Traditionally a hot contest, this year its been a slow start but now there are two candidates - Jonathan Hogg (also standing for PG Convenor) and Ondrej Nenadl who's involved in a busy T&L race within the SRC seats. As we get closer to the close of nominations, I'd expect this race to become very crowded with Sabb candidates and other EUSA Hacks filling the spaces.

SRC Executive hasn't really moved on from last week, with the exception of Jonathan Hogg taking over the Maggie Chapman Memorial Seat as PG Convenor - I don't expect there to be a fight for this seat, but stranger things have happened. Time will tell, I suppose. Across on the EUSA Forums Tim Gee seems to have issued a flat denial that he will stand for SRC Editor, and I await with interest if that is the case when the fat lady sings at noon on Thursday.

SRC itself has a slew of nominations - with Rosy Burgess in Bio Science Rep & Ordinary Member, Stephen Allison in Law Rep & Ordinary Member, Hannah Crichlow for Ordinary Member. What is most interesting however is that Tash Shotton and Tim Gee have both decided to stand for Ordinary Rep. With the rumour on the grapevine that Tim Goodwin will be joining them in standing, the three Sabbs look likely to be returned to the SRC next year: and the debate continues to rage about Sabbs continuing to get involved post-term in Office. I'm more concerned that if they take 3 of the Ordinary Member seats, it leaves only 7 for other students, which is not ideal at all. Having said that, looking as things currently stand a number of the candidates would be returned elsewhere. With the number standing at 13, what's the latest in the sweepstake?

In many people's eyes they are the minor elections, and currently the School Councils have only attacted 4 candidatures from 3 candidates - whether this will pick up waits to be seen.

Down at the bottom of the ballot is the Unions, and here there is also looking likely to be more 'old-Sabb' involvement, because Peter Harris is back from his year in Canada (don't you wish they just kept him there?) and is standing for UnionExec. Rumour is that his 'election agent' is Tim Gee (conspiracy, anyone?), who is standing for CoM. I get the feeling that whoever next year's VPS is will have a tough time of it. Also standing for CoM is Rosy Burgess (who works at Potterrow) and for both CoM and Union Exec, James Wallace is throwing his hat into the ring. It is interesting to see how many people are 'double ticketing' for CoM and Union Exec, a point covered before and on the EUSA forums.

With 2.5 days left, its cetainly becoming more interesting.