Summer Elections underway

Nominations have closed for Imperial College Union’s Summer Elections. Voting will be open from Monday 3 June to Friday 7 June.

This year, the position of Deputy President (Education) will be part of the election. This is after the original winner of the post had to give it up due to an interruption of studies. This will be a two horse race between Natalie Kempson and Frank Machin.

Other positions available are BME Officer, Campaigns Officer, Council Chair, Disabilities Officer, Ethics & Environmental Officer, Gender Equality Officer, Interfaith Officer, International Officer, and LGBT Officer. It appears that the Council Chair, who chairs the meetings of Union Council, is hotly contested as four people have thrown their names into the hat. International Officer also has four contenders. Three positions (BME, Ethics & Environmental, and LGBT Officers) only have one person running for them. It is rare for RON to win elections, so these candidates will be under less pressure than the others.

The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU, formerly GSA) will be electing their committee for next year. Last year, many of these positions had to be re-run as nobody put themselves forward for the positions. This seems to be also happening this year, as multiple positions are uncontested. 8 out of the 14 positions available will have to be re-run as nobody is going for them. There is also the problem with one person going for two positions that cannot be simultaneously held.

There was a problem with the website for the elections. This year, the candidates submitted manifestos for the website by writing them in a text box on the website. They could therefore write a draft in this box, save their progress, and adjust the manifesto until the deadline. When the deadline had past, the manifesto would be locked from editing and the last version would be up on the voting website. During this election, there was an error, and students and, more importantly candidates, were able to see the manifestos that other candidates had submitted (pictured). This means that candidates could have changed their manifestos based on others that were submitted. The problem was swiftly rectified after the Union were informed of the issue.

This year, the position of RAG Chair will not be in the Summer Elections. This was instead elected at the RAG AGM. Fewer than 50 people attended this and the new RAG Chair will be Callum Kirk, who was this year’s RAG Treasurer.

The manifestos for the candidates and voting will be online