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I did a pretty decent job of calling last year’s YUSU election results well in advance of the night (which was fantastic from a YSTV coverage point of view), so I thought I’d give this year a go too.

A Recap

Last year, I said it was between Langrish and Ngwena for President, and Ngwena took it. Student Activities was won by Rhianna Kinchin, so I called that one totally wrong. Democracy & Services was won by Bretts, Charlie won Academic Affairs, Ben grabbed Welfare and Emily got York Sport, so I got those four right. Still, what’s that? ^4½-ish/₆ ain’t bad.

President

This year, there are six candidates for President. We remove the joke candidate, David Hansen (whose two minute hustings video is absolutely superb, by the way), and we’re left with five. David Levene is too boring, Matthew Freckleton is too unknown and Roberto Powell is (in my own honest opinion) too much of a dick.

Down to two, Ollie Hutchings and current President Tim. I reckon it’ll be fairly close between these two, with Tim getting it as student apathy leans toward the incumbent-who-hasn’t-destroyed-our-union.

Student Activities

Of the four candidates, this will go to either Luke or Nick; they’re the two most visible and involved with campus day-to-day. Nick Scarlett will probably just get it. He seems to have had quite a large ‘following’ (well, of sorts) for as long as I can remember.

Democracy & Services

Chris Etheridge is the safe, stable, normal—and boring—choice; but there’s no way he’ll win. As somebody on Nouse commented during hustings:

Dear Chris Etheridge,
Please return my personality forthwith.
Yours,
John Major

So it’s between Sam Daniels and Dan Walker. This will be the closest of the sabbatical candidates, with Sam just edging it.

Academic Affairs

Jason Rose has too much YUSU-goo attached to him (which desperately needs wiping off), and Matt & Elanin are too unknown, so I think current Welfare office Ben Humphrys will get this.

Welfare

Of the three candidates, one (Andrew McIlwraith) has pulled out – or wasn’t running to start with; so we’re down to Laura or Peter Warner-Medley. Pete took part in York Come Dancing last term, and is generally better known, so he’ll get it. He also has the only other hustings video truly worth seeing.

York Sport

Another close one, but I think Sam will take this over Rob. No real reason, just a gut feeling; possibly more charismatic, slightly easier to imagine getting on with it.

…and who do I want? What, me?

I’d like Tim to be President for another year. He knows what goes on properly now, and everybody knows him; so there’ll be no time wasted and he can get the most out of the year for us.

I want Nick Scarlett to win Student Activities for his policies, Dan Walker to win Democracy & Services, any of Elanin, Matt or Ben (preferably) to be Academic Affairs Officer and Peter to be Welfare Officer.

I’d like to leave you with another comment from ‘Ernie Goldberg’ on Nouse, left during the Presidential Debate from this last week. It’s since been removed, but luckily I grabbed a screenshot at the time:

God why don’t you just all stop wasting everyone’s time. Trousers down, let’s see who’s biggest

Voting opens midnight Monday (in about twenty minutes time) and probably closes at some point before the results next Saturday night, for which YSTV will be providing live coverage all night long.

Lewis Bretts was elected to the Student Union at the University of York last summer, beating Ed Durkin, Dave Sharp and George Papadofragakis. Recently, the student newspaper has been having issues with his promises. At first glance, this seems like student politics and student journalism mixing and turning a little crazy, as normal. Except, then I had a look at his manifesto.

I’ve generally got a pretty good idea of what’s going on on campus (I read YUSU’s blog, watch most of Lewis’ video blogs, etc), though I obviously don’t know what’s going on inside the Union 24/7. So if I’ve got something wrong, like Lewis I’m “human and fallible”, do let me know.

This post shouldn’t just be taken as having a go at Lewis. I read all the sabbatical officers manifestos after his, and they all offer a fairly similar theme. Come elections this year (a few weeks to go now), I think I’ll be looking for the most sensible candidate with the simplest manifesto.

It strikes me as funny that there’s a huge need to get more people involved in campus at the moment, but we can’t really trust what the only people we have a choice in actually say. Hmm.

UoY’s student union (YUSU) elections are all this week, so I thought I’d write up a quick post on where my votes are going. These are from the perspective of a generally uninterested-in-politics student. Nouse (the amazing campus newspaper) have a great page (alright, so I’m a little biased) page on all the elections candidates that you can have a peek at. Enjoy.

Re-reading this just after I wrote it, the most important thing for me is: be really visible and very loud, make your policies and yourself known to absolutely everybody who will look at you. Honestly, it doesn’t matter that much what you say; as long as one of your policies isn’t "cull kittens", you’ll be fine.

President

This is a choice between four, and here’s my take on them. Grant Bradley is a decent candidate, and seems to have campaigned well, but is too unknown on campus to win the position of figurehead of YUSU. Bushby is too… "boring" for me. Alright, that’s mean; but I just don’t feel like he’s the person who should be at the centre of the student union. So the race is between Tom Langrish and Tim Ngwena. Both have great experience and nothing stands out from their policies, so it’s a pretty even choice between them. I’m not sure which way I’ll go yet.

Student Activities

I’ve seen none of these three at all on campus or online (by comparison, I’ve seen one person from at least all the other positions). Remembering that I’m voting from the point of view of a lazy student, I’ll probably put Rory Shanks top. Seeing as he’s been doing the job for a year with no major hiccups that I can tell.

Democracy & Services

Dave Sharp’s been campaigning pretty actively round Halifax college – and has been openly critical of the person whose position he’s gunning for. Lewis Bretts gets the prize for the most visible campaigner of everybody in this election (who could miss the giant wooden fruit and vedge stall, really). When it comes down to it, I think it’ll be Bretts top and Sharp second. I’ve heard nothing about Ed Durkin or George Papadofragakis, so they don’t mean much to me.

Academic Affairs, Welfare and York Sport

Academic Affairs doesn’t even need a section. Charlie Leyland’s going to get it, and rightly so. Re-electing people is so easy.

For Welfare, Ben Humphrys has been the most visible, so he’s going top of the list. A few people have said positive things about Pallas, so he’ll go second. And I have no idea who Jenny Coyle is.

And Emily Scott’s the most visible of the York Sport people, so again, she’ll be first. After that, I was impressed by Michael Leahy at some point last term, and I don’t know who the other two are.