Results Night
The evening, hosted by Insanity News was presented by Sarah Honeycombe (Associate Editor Society and Insanity’s Head of News) and our very own Editor, Nick Stylianou, was a progressive run down of each position, in reverse constitutional order.
First to be announced was Vice President (Student Activities), for which there were four candidates in the running: Jon Bates, Claire Nineham, Victor Garcia and RON. RON and Jon Bates were eliminated first and their votes redistributed in turn, leaving Claire and Victor. In the second round Victor reached quota and was duly elected Vice President (Student Activities).
Next up was Vice President (Communications and Campaigns), with five candidates in the running: Al Dean, Somayeh Jafari, Sarah Rahman, Paul Wrench and RON. RON was first to be eliminated, then Al Dean, and the votes redistributed. Somayeh Jafari was next to be eliminated, taking Paul and Sarah onto the fourth round of counting. In this round Sarah reached quota and was duly elected.
The third and final Vice Presidential position was that of Education & Welfare, for which there were five candidates in the running: Beth Rowley, Hardeep Singh Lalli, Stephen Harmer, Scarlett Barnsby and RON. Votes for RON then Scarlett Barnsby were redistributed, followed by votes for Stephen Harmer. That left just Beth Rowley and Hardeep Singh Lalli and, in the final round, Beth reached quota and was duly elected as Vice President (Education and Welfare).
The tension in the room mounted as the evening wore on, to the extent that when announcing the final position, Students’ Union President, James Pidgeon (current SURHUL President) had to administer school-teacher tactics in order to keep the crowd quiet. For Students’ Union President, there were six candidates in the running: Shana-Mari Holidis, Oliver Kerr, Rachel Pearson, Scott Hooker, Alan Lee and RON. In an agonising five-round count, candidates were eliminated and their votes redistributed. RON was first to be eliminated, followed by Shana, Scott, Alan and finally Oliver – leaving Rachel Pearson, who reached quota, to be duly elected as Students’ Union President 2010-2011.
The Sabbaticals-elect will begin their term in August, after a month’s handover period with the current team. The elections for the new Executive Committee will take place in early March. 1,650 votes were cast, which equates to 20% of the student population at RHUL. In comparison the national average for Students’ Union elections is 11%.
