Wednesday once again saw the annual broadcast of Meet the Candidates by Imperial College Television (ICTV), where candidates for the various Officer Trustee roles, as well as Felix Editor, Council Chair, and Student Trustees debated live on air as part of their campaigns to win the election.

The production, which was also one of the first collaborations between IC Radio and ICTV in the refurbished media basement, also featured a “pundit panel” made up of former sabbatical officers for the first time in recent history.

The panel consisted of Matthew Colvin (Felix Editor 2011-12), Jason Parmar (Deputy President (Education) 2011-12) and Marissa Lewis (Deputy President (Welfare) 2013-14), and was chaired by Mechanical Engineering student George Butcher. The show itself was chaired by EEE finalist Thomas Lim, who also produced the show alongside Pete Brook.

Whilst viewers were treated to a rare glimpse of the ICTV control room in the West Basement of Beit, the main focus of the show was on watching candidates answer questions posed to them. These questions were mostly written by the ICTV team, with a number of other questions submitted by viewers via the hashtag #voteicu.

Whilst a number of the positions had either only one person running, or only one person able to attend the live broadcast, a good degree of debate was had for many of the positions. Candidates for Student Trustee were asked about their willingness to become legally responsible for the Union, while candidates for Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) debated about how the Union interacts with clubs. As part of this, the Union’s decision to move a number of club elections into the Big Elections was hotly discussed.

Possibly the highlight of the evening was with the discussion of Union President, for this is felt to be one of the most prestigious roles at the Union.

Host Lim questioned the candidates as to whether they would live in Woodward Hall in North Acton if they were to win next year – sabbatical officers are allowed to live in College accommodation free of charge during their term. Candidate Lucinda Sandon-Allum confirmed that she would consider moving to Woodward, while Luke Armitage said he would not.

The whole recording is available to watch again online at www.imperialcollege.tv, with separate videos also available for each position.