by Joe Rukin and Chris Neville-Smith
Secretary
Compared to last years election, when the Campaign for Free Educations (CFE) Faz Velmi gave the best perfomance for the Education not War (then Unite for Free Education) slate, this year, as Organised Independent (OI) Penny Hollings won at a canter with the highest votes total in this years elections at 554, coming in 108 over quota in round one.
Helen Salmon, representing SWSS on the EnW slate managed under half of Velmis' total and even scored fewer votes than she did herself in a much more contested election for Treasurer in 2002. A much narrowed field compared to the presidential election helped Conservative Future (CF) pick up 33 more votes, though the lack of choice must have also contributed to the highest score for RON in any of the elections.
| Sam Dobbyn | 115 |
|
Penny Hollings | 554 |
| Helen Salmon
| 174 |
| RON | 48 |
Treasurer
As with the National Secretary election, rumours that SWSS had not had all their delegates on conference floor during the presidential election was causing sever splits between them and CFE on the EnW slate. This went along way to give SWSSer Tom Whittaker the lowest score on the slate of 132. His speech also went a long to way towards that as at some points it was less relevant to the post of treasurer than Salmons' had been, and whilst Omar Warraich also contributed a speech about internationalism (actually wholly about Palestine) before withdrawing in favour of Whittaker, which got their point accross, it did little to attract votes.
This election had a smattering of deja-vu from last year when Labour Students (NOLS) Andrew Perfect faced their most serious challenge from the unalligned Dervish Mertcan. This year Steve Bloomfield from NOLS was up against Mertcan's chosen successor, Ross Renton. Treasurer has proven a bit of a banana skin for NOLS, with the last winner being Andrew Pakes in 1997.
Again repeating history, this proves to be an election which NOLS start off well in, but then fade. After the first round, Bloomfield is just 28 ahead and transfers will be crucial. When Alan Cooke goes out for the Tories, his transfers go to Renton at a rate of over 2-1, and Renton crawls 4 votes in front. Left transfers would therefore be crucial. However unlike last year when the left had heavily backed Mertcan, only 58% of Whittakers 140 votes transferred, opposed to 87% of Cookes 112. Still, the rate was 2-1 in favour of Renton.
|
Steve Bloomfield | 335 338 367 401 |
|
Alan Cooke | 112 112 |
|
Ross Renton | 307 309 371 418 |
|
Tom Whittaker | 132 134 140 |
|
RON | 12 |
This election had a severe impact, both in terms of this years conference and next years. Without Bloomfield, it seemed there would be no obvious choice of NOLS successor to Mandy Telford, unless NUS Scotland President Rami Okasha were to officially nail his colours to the mast. This would considerably increase the chance of one of the OI's getting the nomination next year for President in the usual NOLS/OI pact.
This may also have to be considered now due to Telford scraping in by 3 votes, which has to be put down as a bad performance for an incumbent. However, with both Verity Coyle and Katt martin 'being seen' to have supported Renton, they now had to look over their shoulders
VP FEUD
It seemed that nothing could eclipse the drama of last years election for VP FEUD, when Kat Price had won a re-run election after the first one had been taken by RON. Things had changed this year, first off Price was now Kat Martin after getting married last year, and this year it seemed that the VP FEUD was regarded as possibly the best full-time officer opposed to the worst. However, that had little to do with the way voting went.
In the voting, Martin seemed to be singled out by NOLS, both as being complicit in Bloomfields failure and a strong contender for president next year. Also, as with last year a deliberate boycott with non-factional HE delegates would give a stronger arm to factional votes. In terms of votes cast FEUD was 100 short of the treasurer election before it, with the eventual winner Laura Brickwood around 30 behind the first round totals of both Dickenson-Lilley & Hutchins.
The main surprise of the election was the star of the show from the Conservative Future (CF) point of view, 17 year old first time delegate Luke Graham who took 203 in the first round. Graham was elected to FENC and we surely haven't seen the last of him. Brickwood was just 24 ahead of Martin at this point, but although Tory transfers favoured Martin, it just wasn't enough as she missed out by two votes.
|
Laura Birckwood | 296 296 369 |
|
Luke Graham | 203 206 |
|
Kat Martin | 272 273 366 |
|
RON | ?? |
Martin then asked for a recount and then lost by three. This was a major win for the left and CFE who had started to bounce back after dissapoinment at SWD and Womens conferences.
VP Education
Last years Block topper and EnWs Student Broad Left (SBL) candidate Louise Hutchins managed almost 100 more than she did in the VPW election last year, with Chris Weavers losing 80 from last time out, despite competition then both from the left and NOLS. With Weavers having had what can only be described as a 'dodgy' year, he was lucky that the HE sector conference happened after this election. There he was berrated for not even managing one meeting of HENC during his first term and dismissing the fact the briefing document that went to MPs said 'NUS will support Grad tax' as a 'mistake'. Students against the War on Terror candidate Ralph Corkill followed Omar Warraichs example of withdrawing in favour of the EnW candidate, although he made the mistake of withdrawing before saying who to vote for so never got to actually say it.
| Peter Bellini | 105 110 |
|
Louise Hutchins | 324 331 360 |
| Chris Weavers
| 354 362 404 |
| RON | 38 |
Despite a first round total for Weavers being 200 less than that of Hollings, with him only having a lead almost identical to Bloomfields, CF transfers were again crucial as he extended his lead to 44, which by this years standards was a substantial margin, but nowhere near the 220 he won by last year.
VP Welfare
Given the a first round gap of 30 for Chris Weavers and 'friendly fire' incident accounting for Martin, there was a feeling that Verity Coyle might also cop it, however this was a pretty straightforward affair, depsite CFEs John Dickenson-Lilley scoring best in the first count of all the left candidates.
| Verity Coyle | 456 |
|
John Dickenson-Lilley | 328 |
| William Quince
| 58 |
| RON | 13 |
NUS Conference 2003
A First Timers View
On the Fringe
Cynicism, and why I don't trust it
Presidential Election
Other Full-Time Elections
Block of Twelve and Committee Elections
NUS Conference Overview
Conference Live
