Another set of Spring Elections, another sweep of positions fished out of the dustbin of history by left-wing candidates. After re- cord-breaking voter turnout of 16.3 per cent, UCL Union remains, for the most part, in the iron grip of Trotsky Inc. Six of the ten sab- batical suite chairs are now filled by candidates backed by the Occupation Generation. The notable exceptions were Zayyann Butt, who thrashed Ben Beach to win Ethics, Environ- ment and Operations Officer, and Doris Chen, who picked up a hard fought victory against Omar Kahn in the race for Activi- ties and Events Officer. The pact between ISoc and the UCLU Left, strong in previous years, seemingly did not bear as much fruit this year after ISoc lost the race for their most prized position, Activities and Events Officer.
Sneade Deep
One of the bloodiest battles fought was that for the newly created post of Women’s Officer. Feminist Beth Sutton emerged triumphant after a tight race against Tory candidate Helen Chandler-Wilde and “self- defining woman” Kirk Sneade, whose cam- paign began as a joke but gathered momen- tum as it emerged more and more people were supporting his candidacy as some form of protest vote. Sneade’s original manifesto campaigned to “encourage women of UCL to wear leggings, jeggings and summer-time denim hot-pants”. This document was cen- sored by UCLU, an act which Sneade com- pared to the persecution of communists in Nazi Germany. Sneade withdrew his candi- dacy shortly after meeting the Dean of Stu- dents, Ruth Siddall. Union insiders say he was given an ultimatum by Siddall: withdraw your candidacy or face disciplinary action from UCL. The Student Union has already banned Sneade from all UCLU space for two terms as punishment for his actions.
U-Lose
Meanwhile, there was also a bout of elec- tions going on at ULU. Leftist poster boy and perpetual third year history student Michael Chessum won re-election as Presi- dent, along with Royal Holloway alumnus Daniel Lemberger Cooper as Vice-Pres- ident. Cooper won by the narrowest of margins, edging out competitor Will Hall by just 29 votes. The Cooper-Hall race at times teetered on the brink of being purely about the politics of remembrance – Cooper refused to lay a Remembrance wreath back in November last year. Team Cooper, however, undertook a pre-emptive smear campaign against Hall, calling him out on his antics as Tory Society president at UCL. Chessum and Cooper campaigners also accused him of having double standards over his libera- tion politics – claiming that Hall had called homosexuality a “lifestyle choice”. Hall ve- hemently denies these allegations and was overheard threatening legal action over the remarks.
Senate the Menace
Over a week after the close of polls, one of the ULU elections has still not been de- cided. The race for London Student Editor, involving The Cheese Grater’s Oscar Webb and London Student’s Katie Lathan has been voided by the ULU Elections Com- mittee, due to alleged biased reporting from the current London Student team. In their ‘Random Facts’ section of the ‘Elec- tion Special’, Lathan, who is current dep- uty editor of London Student, was lauded with “Katie has over 20 nominations from teams and societies across the University of London”. Webb’s ‘fact’, however, was that he “has never been involved with London Student”.
The volume of complaints received on the biased reporting caused ULU Returning Officer, Rob Park, to convene an Elections Tribunal, which found that although Lathan herself had played no role in the production of the ‘Elections Special’, the results of Lon- don Student election had been unfairly bi- ased in her favour. The election result was thus declared void and will, as it stands, in- stead be decided by ULU Senate, a council of sabbatical officers from across London. Lathan supporters, however, are demanding the original results be released. They threaten to take ULU to court and are rumoured to be planning an ‘occupation’ of Chessum and Cooper’s Office to force the release of re- sults. Webb, on the other hand, is calling for a whole new election and the resignation of current editor, Jen Izaakson, claiming she has broken election rules.