gair rhydd
PHOTOS: Jake Yorath
Monday March 28 2011 | freeword – Est. 1972 | Issue 948
The results are in Pippa Lewis News Editor Last weeks Students’ Union elections saw a record turnout with 5429 votes cast compared to 4022 last year, despite a fall in the number of candidates running. Despite this success, the results were riddled with controversy as suggestions of cheating circulated. A variety of reports have emerged of unfair practice among candidates and campaigners including insinuations that certain
candidates were providing voters with the means of voting, including entering halls of residences with a laptop and helping people to vote. One anonymous candidate from the Finance and Commercial category told gair rhydd that as they were questioning a group of three students outside Talybont North about whether they had voted, the students replied: “Yeah kind of, only for Athletic Union President though.” When questioned further the students went on to say: “I don’t know, some guy from the AU category just came in and did it for us.”
One message to a candidate in the AU category was found to be encouraging a candidate to set up an alternative polling station: ‘Maybe go to Park Place and ask if you can do a shout-out in the gym? Ask if there’s anyone that hasn’t voted and use the Fitness Assessment room if it’s free to vote. Tuesday lunchtime, so should be Trig and James around, maybe Mark.’ Further claims of an alliance between candidates have surfaced in which campaign teams were seen to be both endorsing candidates from other categories and actively
encouraging people to vote for multiple candidates of differing categories. Four candidates around whom allegations of unfair practice circulate went on to be elected as part of next year’s Sabbatical team. Furthermore, there have been suggestions of homophobic and sexist comments made about candidates in the Athletic Union President category. Jess Cox, AU candidate was challenged by a voter while campaigning stating: ‘Why should a girl be AU President?’ Information has also
come to light about a homophobic message sent to voters from a member of an AU campaign team stating that a certain candidate should not be elected because ‘that puff should never be allowed in the AU.’ Questions have additionally been raised about certain election results in which large majorities were found in a number of categories compared to tighter ones found in previous years. These are also the categories in which allegations of cheating have emerged.
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