ULU Election results

At ULU Council on Monday night, the four sabbatical officers who will represent the University of London’s 82000 students next year were elected.

First up were the two candidates for President, where Siva Ganeshanandan (this year’s General Secretary at Royal Holloway Union), beat off Mark Pursey (ULU Chair and UCL sabbatical at UCL), winning by 40 votes to 33. Both candidates seized upon the need to act fast to secure London Transport discount cards for ULU students, before privatisation takes place. Both candidates promised to oppose any threat of fees or top-up charges, Mr Pursey repeatedly stating his success in keeping fees out of the UCL prospectus. Neither candidate put forward any scheme which they would definitely support, and followed each other in expressing the need for ULU to take a greater role in the NUS, drawing cries of ‘shame’ from the IC delegation.

There was very little difference between the two candidates, and questions from the floor did little to draw a distinction as only three questions were permitted by the Returning Officer.

Imperial’s own Jo Paice stood unopposed for the position of Vice President (Finance & Services) and beat off the New election challenge by 36 to 25. She promised to give greater financial accountability, a greater return on the investment which College Unions put into ULU, more resources for sports and societies and smaller Colleges, and more forward planning to allow ULU to work alongside, rather than in competition with, constituent Colleges and Unions.

Elsewhere, Dan Brown combated the (non-existent) New-Election challenge, wining by 41 votes to 16 to take the post of Vice President (Sports & Societies) for 97/98, and Sam Parham won the role of V-P (Welfare & Representation) 30-29 after the first reallocation of votes, having tied 29-29 with Mark Hill on the first count