Highest ever voter turnout as Big Elections come to a close

Last Friday saw the end of another year of campaigning and voting for the Imperial College Union sabbatical positions, with the results of the Big Elections 2015 announced during the results party in Metric.

The election, which also featured the Liberation Officers, Constituent Union positions and a large number of clubs and societies positions, once again resulted in the Union taking the largest turnout in England and Wales; once again The University of St. Andrews in Scotland took the crown for the largest turnout in the UK. The number of postgraduate students voting was also up 50% on last year.

The total number of voters was also up on last year, by nearly 750, with the rate of people voting being on the whole much greater than the year before.

Next year’s President will be Lucinda Sandon-Allum, who got 3152 votes, while Luke Armitage took 1016 and RON 552. The Returning Officers told attendees at the party that this was the highest number of votes received by a Union President candidate in the history of the Union. Lucinda told Felix about the elections, “I am absolutely thrilled to have been elected as Union President! A huge thank you to my phenomenal campaign team who played a massive part in making this happen and an equally big thank you to everyone who voted for me.

“The last two weeks of campaigning have been a great opportunity to talk to so many different groups of students from all areas of the College. I am very excited to start putting my manifesto points into action next year and bettering the student voice and experience”.

The Deputy Presidents were Ben Howitt for Deputy President (Clubs and Societies), Chun-Yin San for Deputy President (Education), and Christopher Kaye for Deputy President (Finance and Services).

Cyin San said, “A huge thank you to everyone who voted – very proud to have been part of such a large democratic vote. Particular thank you to my BMS students, whose engagement in Rep affairs over the past year have been hugely motivational, and to those of you who followed my online campaigns - I hope you’ve enjoyed learning random facts each day!

“I look forward to serving all Imperial students over the next year as your top Academic Rep, and to work constructively with College to improve your learning experience”.

Finally, Jennifer Watson will be next year’s Deputy President (Welfare), saying, “I’m so unbelievably happy and extremely grateful to everyone who voted for me. I can’t wait to get stuck in to work now!”.

Ben told Felix, “Thanks so much for electing me as your DPCS for next year! It was a great experience to campaign, and I feel especially lucky that I was campaigning for a contested position. Lots to work from there!

“There’s so much going on next year – it’s hard to pick a favourite. The aim next term is to get organised and get talking to people, so that we go out of this year ready to start the next”.

Chris told us, “I’m very excited about being able to implement some changes very quickly. Alex, the incumbent DPFS, is very keen to help me get the groundwork sorted for my year’s start, and I’m very grateful to him for that.

“The sabbatical team this year have been fantastic, have had a superb dynamic together, and I feel I’ve made some friends for life. Next year’s sabbatical team have big shoes to fill, but we relish the challenge.

“To paraphrase the Queen, I look forward to continuing to serve our great Imperial family to which we all belong”.

Meanwhile Grace Rahman will be next year’s Felix Editor, and the student trustees will be Zain Rizvi and Serena Yuen, who dramatically moved from second to first place in the final round of voting.

The Live Statistics dashboard made its return once again, with Faculty of Engineering this year beating Natural Sciences to be the top faculty in terms of turnout. Electrical Engineering had the greatest turnout amongst departments, and two clubs had 100% turnout, Croquet and RSM Netball.