Monday 27th February 2012 - Student Union elections

It's election time in the Students' Union.  A rash of coloured posters has burst out all over the concourse in front of the Arts Tower, and especially in the spaces around the Union Building.  The holdres of the eight sabbatical posts will be announced late on Thursday evening.  For the moment canvassing is in full swing.  In some ways it seems unsubtle - almost all the posters are designed simply to try to place the candidate's name, with nothing about what their policy proposals actually are.  But there is perhaps an inevitability about this - two weeks ago most of the candidates were unknown to almost everybody except their circle of friends (who are now drummed into action as key election agents and supporters).  There are rarely any 'party machines' or particular lobby groups standing.  And this in my view gives strength to the democratic process in the Union because it tends to produce winners who are more broadly representative of students across the unviersity, rather than owing their election to a particular cadre.

In many years there are a series of joke candidates, but that doesn't seem to be the case in 2012.  But what has impressed me in the past has been that amongst all the myriad candidates standing thsoe who emerge as winners are almost invariably excellent student representatives.  And they almost always then gell as a team despite the fact that prior to their election they probably had never met each other.  In only one year since I have been PVC have I seen an officer team fall apart, and in only one other year have I seen a major split develop marginalising one officer against the other eight. In both of those years there were officers who had been elected with the support of what I have called 'party machines'.

This year there could be some surprises.  The number of candidates standing is the second highest ever.  And the vagaries of the transferable vote system used in the Union means that second, third and fourth preferences will take on great significance in the decision on a number of the posts.

But there are two surprises that I would really like to see - despite the fact that I have to be completely non-partisan!  Firstly, I would be delighted if we saw the election of a Chinese student to any position - and this year we do have Chinese candidates.  That's great, because until now the large number of Chinese students have been reluctant to come forward and stand for office.  But secondly what I would REALLY welcome would be the election of a woman as President of the Union.  I have been a PVC since 2004 and in the whole of that period there has never been a woman in charge of the Union.  So I'll be looking at the results at the end of this week with great interest.