Looking Forward ...

Many people have asked me over the last few days for my thoughts, predictions and other ideas for the races that are going to happen in 12 months time. It's a hard one to really scope out.

Thinking back to twelve months ago, the money then was that I was would run again this year - against Josh & Adam - in a re-run of last year's External Convener battle. People suggested that Tom French & Steven Lauder would slug it out against Sara Bodle running for VPSA. No one would have mentioned Ben, Anna or Bruce for VPAA and Kwan was fairly unsure if he'd stand again. And Chris Arnold was as anti-EUSA as you could get, let alone thinking about a stab at VPS. Twelve months ago, so many varied names were being suggested from within those elected back then, that you might have put money against any of them.

To use the Grand National analogy a final time - predicting this far out, is like attempting to predict the runners in that race, without seeing what they do in between, knowing their form in the mean time, knowing their handicaps and their advantages.

In twelve months, EUSA could be a very different political animal, and the forthcoming year's Sabbs (those who have just been elected) could turn people on or off to EUSA depending on what they do.

Looking at it objectively, you can pick anyone on CoM or SRC Exec or in SRC and say "they will run because ..." and make your own reasons. People like Katherine Sellar, Nick Ward and Guy Bromley are inevitably going to be linked with standing next year. People who've just been elected for the first time may also be linked with a possible race next year. The issue is - as I say above - what will the next 8 months bring before people begin to make their minds up?

What about the people who aren't "EUSA people" currently? The likes of Will Searle, Chris Arnold and Chris Williams - people who before the beginning of February most people hadn't heard about, and most people would never have imagined standing.

What I want to see is a completely different thing (forgive the political sounding-ness of what follows). I want to see elections for Sabbaticals that are well challenged and where the electorate has a big cross-section of people to choose from. I want to see people from outside EUSA stand, and take part in elections. And I want to see new ideas in the election campaigns. Of course there are people I'd like to see stand and then go on to win, but this far out, I don't know if they will stand come next February.

Put simply - to predict now would be foolhardy, and the merits of it would be very questionable. Feel free to comment.

Post Race Analysis - VPSA

Elections shouldn't take that long to announce, and so by the VPSA result, the crowd was thinning, and people were growing tired especially after two hard days of campaigning, not to mention the long battle beforehand. The reasoning must have been sound to leave it all the way to the last, but it was probably for a good reason.

Gordon's victory over Will was predicted in some quarters, and yet also a dissapointment to many. This was seen as the most likely race to result in a non-EUSA hack winning, but it wasn't to be, as Gordon took victory by a significant margin.

It's difficult to ascertain how good Gordon will be - his position within the Exec is crucial, and could be seen as powerbroker between Tom & Josh. Gordon's work will be hard, but he is cut from the same cloth as Tash, and I believe he has the makings of a good VPSA. His work throughout the last Freshers' Week involved a lot of varied things, and having seen first hand what he has done, I've been impressed.

For Will, he must take away the fact that he ran an excellent campaign, which brought a lot of people into the 'EUSA arena' and got them involved. It was refreshing to have a serious, open and honest candidate (and a KB kid) standing, who really made the elections a better place to be over the last four weeks. If he stands again, there'll be a tide of support for him.

Live Results - VPSA

This is it. Final one.

So after 6 schools, Gordon leads Will 162-110
So after 9 schools, Gordon leads Will 244-156
So after 12 schools, Gordon leads Will 649-389

With Tash racing along, its hard to keep track ...

With 6 schools left, Gordon leads Will 1074-678
With 5 schools left, Gordon leads Will 1233-760
With 4 schools left, Gordon leads Will 1393-844
With 3 schools left, Gordon leads Will 1442-881
With 2 schools left, Gordon leads Will 1558-966
With 1 schools left, Gordon leads Will 1633-1013

Therefore Gordon Aikman is elected the next EUSA VPSA - unsurprisingly his song is Flash Gordon by Queen.

His speech is very complimentary and although he fails to mention his opponent in it, it is a breath of fresh air after Tom's performance a couple of hours ago.

And that completes the results section of this blog. Coming up in the morning will be a summary of the results, how I see the division of power and a number of other things.

Clock's Ticking ...

As the candidates bed down for a bit of sleep, and as I start knocking back the coffee for the essay all nighter that lies ahead, a quick commentary on Day 1 of the election itself. With most people now thoroughly shattered, thoroughly exhausted and - quite possibly - thoroughly beyond the point of caring, the voting started.

According to sources over 2300 people had logged on and casted at least a vote for a candidate in a category by shortly after 3pm. How this compares with previous years is difficult to estimate. Who does a high turnout favour? What does this mean for voting through the evening (traditionally the busiest time) over night, or throughout day two? Will people actually care by the end of day two, or will they just say "I've already voted" to every leaflet they are offered tomorrow?

Lunch time outside the main library brought a real host of candidates - some in differently coloured T-Shirts, some who weren't. Also on offer was this year's best campaign gimmick - Will Searle & Frankenstein. This really brought something different to the election. Also amusing that Gordon & Ben chose the same coloured T-shirts from the many on offer; H&M must be doing very well from the many T-Shirts bought, and I'd be surprised if you could get a yellow one anywhere in Edinburgh!

This evening, Pollock Security decided not to allow any flyering outside the JMC, so it was door-to-door knocking for all the candidates, including Stuart, KT, Anna and various members from other campaign teams. How effective is doorstepping? We'll wait and see.

So the questions begin - will MyEd run ok tomorrow, or will the servers crash? If so, when? Will the Registry problem that plagued last year's Sabbatical results happen again? What results will come first? In fact, what time will the first results appear?

Debating Hall, starting sometime after 8pm, is where you'll find out first. And if you're really lucky, I may do some live blogging of the results, and quotes that start coming out.

But that depends on this essay going well ...

New Circuit ...

To continue with the analogy (and to somewhat stretch it), having completed the first circuit of the course, navigating through the water jump that was the Fresh Air interviews on Friday (the smallest fence of the course, but the one likely to cause the odd problem), the candidates head out for the second circuit of the course.

This morning sees Tom French & Adam Ramsay (are they really a couple? - you see one, you see the other!) giving out leaflets to first year voters on their way out of Brunch in the JMC in Pollock Halls. An interesting take on these two candidates - has anyone else noticed that their posters don't appear to be pasted onto cardboard, but on plyboard. Now as election rules prohibit candidates from purchasing materials to put their posters on, you've got to ask - where have they got the wood from? And so much of it too? And both candidates have the same wood it appears ... more questions than answers.

Speaking of Adam, he too has a YouTube video. At nearly 4 minutes, its much longer, has some cringe worthy "endorsements", and I question: will 'ordinary' people sit through it all and watch it (yes, I know I have, but then I'm a bit of a hack), whereas Will Searle's video - albeit for a different position - is a great deal shorter and much snappier. Thoughts, as ever to the Comments button below.

A number of posters from the other candidates also look to be suffering - but that was a result of the constant rain on Thursday rather than any other reasons. However, this weekend will see a renewed effort with no doubt even more posters going up - the question is (especially in Bristo Square): where are they going to put them up? Photos to follow.

Fresh Air - VPSA

After the President candidates (excluding Chris Williams), it was on the VPSA Candidates - Gordon & Will.



More slick questioning for Tim & his team, with some really rather issues surrounding cheese on a stick & the Potterrow Shop, and what piece of meat they'd rather be.

Then came the obligatory arm wrestle - with Gordon apparently victorious.

News, Gossip and Rumours

A quick posting before I sleep, nearly 5 posts in one day should keep all those who read this blog happy!

Posters are coming up ... and down: Lots of candidates had their posters up today, including the first major tranche of posters from Kwan Ting Chan, Bruce Golding & Josh MacAlister, and a second batch of posters from Adam Ramsay. Photos to follow. However, the afternoon brought more disconcerting news as it appears that Josh's posters have come down in Pollock, whilst all the posters on the West and North sides of George Square suffered the same fate.

The Anti-Labour Webpage seems to be causing a stir, but at the same time are people just not bothered?

Manifesto Detail: One sources has told me that the reason that Josh is delaying his website's detailed manifesto because Adam hasn't been bothered to launch a proper website yet. However, this evening brings signs of a manifesto on Josh's site. Is Adam really bothered by a website or is he just relying on a P&P vote?

Real candidate gives his views: In what is surely a first in the EUSA Elections, Will Searle has decided to go with a web interview on YouTube (and syndicated through his website and Facebook group) to explain to people who is really is. A really new an innovative idea and something no other candidate can do without just seeming to be copying. No doubt this is a vote winner. Kudos where its due for the new idea.

Funny story of the day: I was in Tesco's this evening, which is itself not unusual. I was recognised by the check out assistant who thought I was standing in the elections - after I had corrected her (and told her she was a year late), she asked for my thoughts on this year's race. After mentioning some of the candidates she asked me about Tom & Adam .... asking if they are "always together" and if they are "together". I asked if she meant that they were working together on the same 'team'. Apparently not - she was asking if they were an item, because people only ever seem to see them together. Seems EUSA has its latest couple ...

Looking at ... The Association (Sabbs)

So with the nominations closed, and whilst the candidates are furiously working away touching up their manifestos before the Monday deadline, and everyone pouring over the details in everyone else's battle plans, now is the time to consider the election at hand. Who's standing, what does the initial out look mean, and the rest.

So President first. Well, whilst I'd like to suggest it would be a three way battle, Adam & Josh do have the front running ground. Josh's teaser campaign might leave it late for him to show who he really is, but I've no idea if there are sufficient hits to his website to make up for this. Adam's website is "still coming" (I was in this position last year, so won't throw too many stones), but it does currently look like an extention of the Mark Ballard factory. It looks tacky, and compared with what has been so far a very poor poster campaign (more of which later), it must be hurting. Chris Williams - well, who is Chris? No website. No posters - although there are some rumours circulating about why. Chris however has one key advantage - no political slime that comes with Josh or Adam. If he can get a message out to the voters that he doesn't have the messy political background of the two "heavy hitters" this may play well with people who are sick of EUSA hacks.

Vice President Academic Affairs comes next. It is still very difficult to split any of these candidates. KT's website is now online, and is looking very smart and sleek. No posters are up as yet, but the website makes up for this - especially a very interesting section showing his comparative perfomance against the other candidates. Anna's site is more bare bones still - flash driven, it'll no doubt annoy a few people, but it does lack in content. Bruce's site is also now online, and is very simple, but very effective. There's a lot of stuff about Bruce and its presented in a simple easy manner (like KT's) which will make a lot of people a lot happier. Ben's site is moving slowly, and now includes the yellow used in the Joshesque Teaser posters.

Vice President Services - well this is where it gets dirty. Tom French seems to be having a go at anyone and everyone on the EUSA forums, and whilst this won't play out on a larger scale, the more people that become interested in the elections the more will find out. His website is up, and it is already causing controversy. There is so much on this that needs discussing, I'm not sure where I should start, so this time round I'm going to simply say that using photos of Tom and current Sabbs almost seems like endorsement from them (especially on the front page), and that using supporting quotes makes it seem like the hard sell. I'm not sure. Stuart on the other hand looks to be winning a softer kind of vote, with his interesting slogan. I've seen some of the forthcoming publicity, which does look interesting and could be a vote winner - how good it is can't be judged yet, and if it really will engage people at all is more difficult to guess. However, Tom & Stuart are ahead of Chris Arnold, who's website isn't up as yet, but is promised by this weekend, along with a manifesto thereafter. However - much like the other Chris - if it is a non-political student people want, then Chris is the choice. However much Tom bleets on about not being a Labour member, the choice is stark between "Green-Labour" (Tom), "Tory-Labour" (Stuart) or something non-Labour, non-party poltical.

Vice President Societies & Activities is probably the most difficult to really work out. Gordon's website is still coming - all we have is all we've seen for nearly two weeks with "Flash Gordon". Will Searle may have stolen a slight lead with a fresh looking, very different website. Although not much is there, it looks a lot cleaner, and I can imagine some content will bring it to life.

Societies Convenor has been returned unopposed, which means Katherine Sellar won't have a tough race like Tom French & Steven Lauder did last year. That means no surprises either.

Finance Committee is a mixture. For the first time in years, there is an election for Senior Member of Finance Committee, and with the previous post holder no longer able to stand, the man who took his place at the Bye Elections will face off against the Sabbatical who is probably disliked the most in recent times. Neil versus Tim Cobbett will be interesting - as I've said before the influence on "Diana" on this election will be a deal breaker. What is really disappointing is that for the Finance Student Members, there are only 5 people standing, compared with 10 last year. There's a distinct lack of Sabbatical candidates taking this as 'fall-back' option and so this will be a tight race.

This being the top of ballot, there's going to be an awful lot of development and it will no doubt happen very quickly.

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.

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

Firstly, apologies for the tardiness of the last two days without so much as a posting.

The political shape of these elections has changed dramatically in the last 48hrs, and now the mud really is starting to fly. A quick look at the EUSA Election website (http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/elections) shows that there are over 51 candidtures, but worryingly only from 28 people. There must be a drive to get more students to stand, to make sure that people are involved - whatever their backgrounds are.

Sabbatical wise, the VPAA race is becoming very interesting, with the biggest field for the seat in its existence. Bruce Golding (http://www.brucegolding.net) was the second candidate to declare, and his website is firmly under construction. Known as a member of SRC for a while now, the only other details that I really know about Bruce is that he is a heavily involved Labour Party Member, appearing most recently in a Party Political Broadcast for them. Next up in Ben Politowski (with the aptly titled http://www.poliwhat.com) - I've heard his name before, I believe he is left leaning, but I await his policies with interest. Joining the field most recently, (on Friday) is the much expected candidture of Anna Davidson (http://www.freewebs.com/annadavidson). Anna will - as I no doubt told her last weekend at the Politics Away Weekend - most likely pick up a vote simply by being the old girl in the field and depending on how she plays it could do well a la Sabrina Russo. With KT Chan in this field, this could be the election that interests a lot of people.

Across in the VPSA race, the real interest is by Will Searle. I can't claim to know Will, and without a website as yet, I have nothing to go on. I'm obviously pleased that Gordon Aikman isn't being given a free ride to the position, so an interesting and exciting election could be in prospect.

More to follow no doubt - I really do hope we have some more Sabb candidates.