This year’s Students’ Union by-election has attracted just two nominations for the four positions.
Nominations closed last Monday, but the Students’ Union didn’t widely publicise who had put themselves forward, and it seems with good reason.
For the part-time student officer position, only one candidate put their name forward, Lauren Butterton. She is a second year law student at the university, and you can read her manifesto on the Students’ Union’s website.
To gain the position, all Butterton will have to do is get more support than there is to re-open the nominations.
Meanwhile, only Emily Fay Gough — already a part-time officer at the Students’ Union — was nominated for a NUS delegate spot. This means that the remaining two will have to be appointed.
Names for the posts could be put forward by either the SU’s “elections group” or the Student Council, which holds its first meeting of this academic year on Thursday.
The extreme shortage of nominations for the NUS delegate positions is even worse than the sad situation a year ago. In the last by-election there were six such positions, and half of them had to be appointed by the SU. This time the proportion to be appointed is two-thirds.
It cannot be known whether the lack of nominations stems from an apathetic mood amongst students, or the SU’s poor promotion of the vote. A 950-word message from Chris Charnley, the SU’s president, about the elections was sent to students just two days before nominations closed.
The candidates are meant to be campaigning this week, and voting will take place between Monday November 2nd and Thursday November 5th.