Oxford Student Union in NUS U-Turn

The Oxford Union (OUSU) has declared last week’s vote on whether to continue to affiliate with the National Union Students void amid controversy over “ballot stuffing”. The ‘no’ vote had won the referendum by a slender 128 votes last week, but it has since emerged that more than 1000 votes for ‘no’ were submitted from the same IP address, in batches, with unique voter codes that hadn’t yet been assigned to any members of the union.

Jack Matthews, the leader of the Oxford University Conservative Association and the leader of the ‘no’ campaign brought the evidence forward, who noticed that 23,000 voter codes had been assigned, when the electorate is in fact only 21,500. Returning Officer Alexander Walker has since resigned his position, citing it as “untenable”.

OUSU president Tom Rutland has said that he will bring the motion to council to stay with the NUS, as, after discounting invalid votes, more than 70% had voted to remain affiliated to the NUS.