A sad goodbye, a happy hello

It is with regret that due to changing personal circumstances, our newly elected Deputy President, Natalie, and our Arts and Social Sciences Representative, Claire, have withdrawn ahead of the new term beginning 1 August 2022. 

We would like to thank both individuals for their efforts in nominating themselves and campaigning with students, raising awareness of the Association in new spaces and we wish them all the best with their continued studies and interests. 

Since these individuals withdrew before the start of their term, our elections provider; Civica reran the elections data with the remaining candidates to ascertain whether their was a clear student preference for re-open nominations (RON) or for another candidate considering the 'Single Transferable Vote' system* used. 

The number of RON votes after the rerun is 85 vs 1,091 votes for Gareth Jones as the preferred choice for Deputy President, revealing a clear mandate from students to award Gareth Jones the position before re-opening nominations. 

We performed the same process for the FASS role, also revealing a preference for a candidate over RON. However, the next most-voted-for student confirmed they are no longer in a position to take on the role. This role will therefore be added to the by-election in the Autumn, alongside the Student Trustee and Open rep roles.

Please join us in congratulating Gareth Jones on his appointment, and we are certain he will do a fantastic job in representing students and in supporting the new CEC team and President throughout the 2022-24 term. 

*When we rerun a STV election with a candidate excluded, the votes which listed the now excluded candidate as first preference are transferred to the next available preference. If there is no subsequent preference given, the vote becomes invalid. The quota for election is calculated based on valid votes, so it is recalculated at the first stage based on the new total valid votes. If RON was more popular than the remaining candidates, votes would be transferred to RON and it would be ‘elected’.