The Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) has announced by-election results for various Convenor and NUS Scotland and UK positions.
The results were announced to a sparsely-attended event in the Teviot Debating Hall on the evening of Thursday, October 7.
EUSA President Briana Pegado first took the stage, followed by Vice President Societies and Activities (VPSA) Eve Livingston, then Vice President Services (VPS) Tasha Boardman, and finally Vice President Academic Affairs (VPAA) Dash Sekhar. The sabbaticals announced results in no obvious order.
The Convenor elections were characterised by universally low turnout, with one position drawing only six votes. NUS election statistics were not announced at the time of publication.
The night was plagued by technical problems which interrupted proceedings several times. During one of the later interruptions, Sekhar asked the audience: “Why did the mushroom go to the party?”
A member of the audience called out almost instantly: “Because he was a fungi!” to much applause.
A further error occurred when Urte Macikenaite was announced as a winner in the NUS UK election; The Student has reason to believe that this nominee was, in fact, defeated, and that Theo Robertson-Bonds was actually elected in the first round.
Speaking to The Student after the event, Robertson-Bonds said: “It is shambolic that it took further enquiry to determine that the NUS delegate results were invalid, and further to this, it was embarrassing to a great number of candidates, including myself.
“This is a repeated, annual occurrence, and EUSA’s returning officer needs to take responsibility for these appalling missteps which have become normalcy in the course of EUSA elections.”
Following the event, Sekhar told The Student: “Turnout was higher than last year. Turnout was in the late 800s. This wasn’t dramatically more than last year, regardless of the fact that we had double the number of candidates. With more candidates you would expect more votes. Perhaps we need to give more support to candidates running.”
The full results in the order in which they were announced are below:
Business School Postgraduate School Vice Convenor: Kelly Crawford
Physics and Astronomy Postgraduate School Vice Convenor: Iwo Dubaniowski
School of Education (Moray House) Postgraduate School Vice Convenor: Farrah Walji
Edinburgh College of Art Postgraduate School Vice Convenor: Fraser Graham
Social and Political Science Postgraduate School Vice Convenor: Anthony Salamone
Postgraduate Student Section Group Convenor: Madhav Mittal
1st Year External Campaign Organiser: Michael Kutner
Economics School Convenor: Joseph Lee
Chemistry Undergraduate School Vice Convenor: Douglas Cullen
Edinburgh College of Art Undergraduate School Vice Convenor: Ke Lim
Geosciences Postgraduate School Vice Convenor: Saskia Kearns
Women’s Liberation Convenor: Lucy Hook
Geosciences School Convenor: Patrycja Jastrzebska
1st Year Academic Campaign Organiser: Phillippe Vouta
Biological Sciences Undergraduate School Vice Convenor: Emily Taskova
Physics and Astronomy School Convenor: Emily Gould
Economics Undergraduate School Vice Convenor: Constantin Reinprecht
Health in Social Sciences Postgraduate School Vice Convenor: Clarissa Clarissa [sic]
1st Year Welfare Campaigns Organiser: Laura Craig
Languages, Literatures and Cultures Undergraduate School Vice Convenor: Zofia Lutkiewicz
Disability and Mental Wellbeing Convenor: Hannah Baker Millington
Maths School Convenor: Mohammad Ubaidullah Hassan Qureshi
PPLS Postgraduate School Convenor: RON (Re-Open Nominations)
External Campaign Organiser: Michael Kirkland
Physics and Astronomy Undergraduate School Vice Convenor: George Parry
School of Education (Moray House) Undergraduate School Vice Convenor: Mehgan Gill
Health in Social Science School Convenor: Alan Tam
Biomedical Sciences Undergraduate Schoole Vice Convenor: Sonia Rehman
Student Member of the Trading Committee: Charlie Bush
Informatics Postgraduate School Vice Convenor: James Garforth
Law School Undergraduate Vice Convenor: William McLaughlan
Business School Undergraduate Vice Convenor: Issei Hara
NUS UK winners: Theo Robertson-Bonds, Tasha Boardman, Jacob Webber, Harriet Protheroe-Davis, Wayne Chang, Matija Tomanovic, Eve Livingston, Noga Szpiro
NUS Scotland winners: Theo Robertson-Bonds, Urte Macikenaite, Tasha Boardman, Greg Lane, Jacob Webber, Paola Bertini, Marko Supronyuk, Jodie Mitchell, Davison, Matija Tomanovic, J Finn Weddle, Eve Livingston, Dash Sekhar