Results

The results of the UCLan Students’ Union elections 2008 were:

President: Gavin Jones

Education officer: Sarah Delli-Colli

Activities and participations officer: Kelly Burdett

Media officer: Andy Squire

Campaigns officer: Lee Bradshaw

The results seemed to go with ‘facebook form’ in that those with the largest group on facebook and online campaign seemed to end up winning. A trend for the future?

Edwards withdraws from election

Mark Edwards has withdrawn from the race to be president.

Edwards is believed to have cited a build-up of university work and other personal reasons for dropping out.

The news leaves three candidates left in the race to be President: Sarah Edwards, Gavin Jones and Chris Ward. Edwards was running as part of a trio with Adam Slaughter and David Watters - we’ll see if they back another President candidate or stick as a duo. Edwards was expected to command the sports vote, but this could shift to Sarah Edwards who could expect to inherit voters who would have backed Mark Edwards.

Going on facebook group members the current favourite for President is Gavin Jones on 395 group members, Chris Ward is second on 149, while Sarah Edwards carries 89 members. Mark Edwards’ shared group with Slaughter and Watters currently has 112 members. But will facebook support translate into solid votes?

Campaigns officer proves most popular as candidates announced

The candidates for the 2008 UCLan Students’ Union elections have been announced and already it’s shaping up to be a hard fought contest. The most popular position is the newly created campaigns officer with five candidates putting themselves forward. Four candidates are down to stand for media officer and president. Activities and participation did have four but one candidate has already deemed to withdraw after failing to hand in a manifesto to meet the deadline set by the returning officer. Only one candidate put themselves forward for education officer.

Our candidates section has the list of those running, with a separate page for each candidate. Information about each candidate will appear soon.

Most candidates turned up to the candidate briefing where a lot of questions were asked, with plenty about the new e-voting system and how it will work. The battle has already commenced on facebook with campaign groups popping up left, right and centre - let’s just hope that people don’t burnout before they’ve even begun.

Nominations open and secret campaigning begins

Nominations have had a week of being open and so far there haven’t been many applicants, but this is no surprise as we know from tradition there is usually a last minute flood.

It’s looking hopeful that each sabbatical position will be contested this year - which always helps as election when there’s more than one person standing.

The Union has made the ruling that no public campaigning until after the candidates briefing, this includes Facebook groups under its ruling. This seems fair, but it hasn’t stopped the setting up of facebook groups on the secret mode. This is a good way for candidates to gather together supporters and dish out tasks for people to do.

The question is, will supporters on facebook groups translate into votes? No matter how online democracy becomes there’s no substitute for a well thought out face to face election plan. If people don’t know you, they won’t vote for you.