Jon Ridge
It was a tense night in the Students’ Union as the long days of tireless campaigning, lecture shoutouts and colourful promoting came to an end, finally, in Biko’s Café.
Not content with the palpable tension in the air, the powers that be kept everyone on their toes for an extra hour, with the first results coming in at 8:30. This ensured there were no fingernails left for any candidates and that the Union Bar was having an exceptional Thursday night of takings.
Secretaries Announced
Candidates, friends, assorted hangers-on and all others who get a kick out of student politics were crammed in as the returning officers read through the results.
The secretaryships were first up, and with most of the liberation secretaryships contested by only two candidates, it made for some good initial head to head contests. Leroy Margolis of Students First [the Labour and Jewish Society coalition] and Amaara Khan were elected Ethnic Minorities Secretary’s (Open and Womens only, respectively).
Lucy Newman [of Students First] and Amar Abbasi were elected Disabled Students’ Secretary’s; and Union Council chair Jonty Pryor took the LGBT open Secretaryship, with LGBT activist Emma Kerry taking the women only position.
Societies Secretary however was keenly contested by five candidates, with Islamic Society and Economics student Hassan Anwar winning through.
Factions
These were just the beginning, but already it was clear to someone who had never been to a Results Evening that the room was deeply divided. The previously very successful Labour Students and Jewish Society were allied under the banner of ‘Students First’, a suitably vacuous name for a political coalition of mutual interest.
In a neat microcosm of recent political events, Islamic Society and related groups such as Action Palestine were also grouped together in the room, loudly supporting their own candidates and the independents they backed in a blur of keffiyeh and shouting.
This left the final third of the room consisting of those running as independents, the far Left, greens and the Liberal Youth, all competing for positions on the executive.
There was a distinct amount of one-upmanship throughout, as factions tried to each shout louder than the other and at times out-do each other for pettiness, even cheering as opposing candidates were eliminated from rounds of voting.
This, of course, was only accentuated by the results for the Executive for 2009/10.
Executive
The most nerve-racking vote of the night award has to go to Laura Williams, who was elected Campaigns Officer by a very slender margin after 3 rounds of voting by students persuaded by her Green credentials. However, somewhat embarrassingly, the result was revealed only after supporters of Katan Alder celebrated prematurely, believing their candidate to be the winner after the second round. Moral of that story, make sure you get your maths right before celebrating…
A result that seemed to surprise many in the room was that of Communications, won by Thomas Fairhurst, an independent running on a platform of neutrality and pledging to tackle student apathy to politics, which chimed with voters who voted him in ahead of Alex James and Mohamed Ghalaieny, two candidates backed by large factions.
The big position of General Secretary was in a similar vein, the two candidates backed by the factions of Students First and Action Palestine’s candidates Richard Neudegg and Amim Shafiq losing out to Gabriel Hassan, running on his environmental and activist experience, as an Independent from main political factions.
Throughout the executive positions, independent candidates profited well from a rejection of the factionalism of Union politics, with Jacques Graves elected Activities Officer. Jennie Agg persuaded voters that experience is crucial to become Student Direct Editor by beating Ruben Seveelaventhan and promised to run a paper inclusive of all political opinion.
Vicky Thompson was elected as Welfare officer in the second round of voting on her manifesto of increasing information and awareness, and Liberal Youth Chair Kate Little for Academic Affairs in a position contested between herself and Dave Sewell of the SWSS. Rather predictably, Hazel Kent won an uncontested contest for Womens Officer.
Amongst the non-Sabbatical positions, these were shared out fairly equally as it turned out, with I-Soc’s Suha Jafri elected International Students Officer and Liberal Youth’s Chris Jenkinson for Postgraduate and Mature Students Officer. Engineering, Humanities, Life Sciences and Medical elected their Faculty Officers as Sarah Mahmoud, Oliver Worth, Shoshana Ajoodan-Poor and Adibah Abdullah respectively.
This left an executive largely consisting of members not elected from I-Soc Action Palestine or Students First, leaving the executive for next year looking radically different in its outlook and political beliefs.
It was an entertaining and nervy night, and congratulations to all those elected and commiserations in equal measure to all who stood. It showed the best and worst sides of student politics, but I would like to think the unexpected triumphs and the attitude for change showed by many of the candidates represents the best side.
Full election results, including those elected to the Non-Executive Council will be available shortly. However, congratulations to Politics Society Chair James Maskell, who was elected as a Humanities General Member for next year.
Correction: Students First was not a solely Labor/J-Soc coalition - members of the group represented a host of different parties and societies.
Another correction: Action Palestine were backing Gabriel Hassan, not Amin Shafiq for Gen. Sec.
Also I think its a simplification to group Action Palestine together with I-soc. Yes, some members of Action Palestine are Muslim, and therefore I-soc members, but support for the Palestinian cause is truly multi-ethnic, stretching across any religious boundaries.
“Correction: Students First was not a solely Labor/J-Soc coalition - members of the group represented a host of different parties and societies.”
Hardly. Students First is a faction dominated by Labour Students (more right-wing than the Labour Party- it’s quite an achievement) and backed by UJS in an attempt to keep out pro-Palestinians and lefties.
Also, Action Palestine didn’t back either Gabriel or Amin. Action Palestine members were divided on this issue, since Gabriel ran on a vacuous apolitical platform (more Students First than Neudegg in fact…) and there was no clear left candidate to back.
Apologies if it was inaccurate that Mr. Shafiq was backed by Action Palestine, and some were supporting Mr. Hassan.
But I hasten to add this was the impression I got from the campaigning and manifesto’s; with Gabriel Hassan’s website making absolutely no mention of him being an AP activist whatsoever, and with Amim Shafiq making Palestine part of his manifesto and (I believe I am right to say, although it appears to have gone offline) including AP on his UMSU campaigning pdf.
Apologies if myself [and indeed other voters] drew wrong conclusions from that!
Very well written article, though I think the number of genuinely independent candidates running has been overestimated. The sad truth with Union elections is that nearly every candidate claims independence when in reality only a handful aren’t supported by at least one of the major blocs. Amim and myself certainly had no major bloc support and so maybe I’m somewhat bias when I say its something that really needs to be dealt with if we are to have a truly inclusive and democratic process. Nevertheless congratulations to all those who won election and thanks to Polsoc for covering the election themselves.
Hi all,
I would second Tris on his comment about the article. Not that it should be of any concern now, but it is really disheartening to know that one’s efforts are misjudged. My manifesto has been completely misunderstood, it was based on a unity and independence focusing on all issues. That aside I think it is important to make things clear and open regarding the true independence of candidates, before further comments are made. Here are the emails, by ISOC and PSA, I had the Action Palestine email which was exactly the same, but unfortunately do not have it anymore, as soon as I do I would post it. On the other hand I think there wouldn’t be a need, as these two emails give a clear indication on what the Action Palestine email contained.
[ISOC] STUDENT UNION ELECTIONS - LAST DAY TO VOTE!
From:
University of Manchester Islamic Society (isoc-sis@listserv.manchester.ac.uk) on behalf of islamic society (muisoc@HOTMAIL.COM)
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Sent: 12 March 2009 12:45:58
To: ISOC-SIS@listserv.manchester.ac.uk
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HOW TO VO…doc (181.9 KB), how_to_vo…doc (184.5 KB)
Assalaamu Alaikum
I hope this email finds you in the best of Imaan
The Islamic Society would like to kindly inform you that Student Union elections are taken place this week!
Participation in the elections are extremely important! Who YOU elect as your representatives will speak and ACT on your behalf for the next academic year. Manchester is one of the largest Union in the country and one of the most politically active. There are many many many reasons why electing the ‘right people’ is imperative. The Islamic Society is of one europes largest islamic societies and it would be neglectful on our part if we failed to inform you on who we have identified as the right candidates. This year Voting is Online and will take no more than 10 minutes of your time so Please Please Please Vote (and vote for the ‘right people’) and help spread goodness on this Earth!!
Voting will take place online and details on how to vote can be found in the attached document(English and Arabic).
The Islamic Society has identified candidates who it believes can represent YOU.
They are as follows:
SEWELL Dave – Academic Affairs Officer
ALDER Katan – Campaigns Officer
GHALAIENY Mohamed – Communications Officer
HASSAN Gabriel - General Secretary
KHAN Ahmed - Student Activities Officer
SEVEELAVENTHAN Ruben – Student Direct Officer
THOMPSON Vicky - Welfare Officer
KENT Hazel – Women’s Officer
JAFRI Suha - International Students Officer
MCSWEENEY John - Postgraduate and Mature Students Officer
MAHMOUD Sara - Engineering and Physical Sciences Faculty Officer
AHMED Tuseef - Humanities Faculty Officer
ABDULLAH Adibah - Medical and Human Sciences Faculty Officer
Pakistani Students Association
Dear Members,
The Pakistan Student’s Association (PSA) would like to extend due support to the following candidates who are contesting for the UMSU Elections 2009. On behalf of these candidates, we would like to request all our members to support them, help them campaign and VOTE for them!
You can vote online from Tuesday 10th to Thursday 12th March.
Voting will take place online and details on how to vote can be found in your University email.
Following is the list of names and the posts that they are standing for:
They are as follows:
SEWELL Dave - Academic Affairs Officer
ALDER Katan - Campaigns Officer
GHALAIENY Mohamed - Communications Officer
HASSAN Gabriel - General Secretary
KHAN Ahmed - Student Activities Officer http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54103598582&ref=ts
SEVEELAVENTHAN Ruben - Student Direct Officer
THOMPSON Vicky - Welfare Officer
KENT Hazel - Women’s Officer
JAFRI Suha - International Students Officer http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52590003740
MCSWEENEY John - Postgraduate and Mature Students Officer
MAHMOUD Sara - Engineering and Physical Sciences Faculty Officer
AHMED Tuseef - Humanities Faculty Officer
ABDULLAH Adibah - Medical and Human Sciences Faculty Officer
These elections brought the true colours of certain factions, which was not only demoralizing for candidates, but also disgraceful. I understand student elections are sometimes about serious competitions, but to go to an extent where societies involve in obvious negative campaigning, deception to the student body and creating lasting differences and hatred amongst groups, by using ‘every’ means necessary is exactly what’s wrong with UMSU, and exactly why the turnout of each year’s elections is 10% percent of the student body of our university, something which I hope our current government looks in to.
Kind Regards
Amim Shafiq
Action palestine did back Gabriel Hassan in their email, they also backed Hazel Kent, Vicky Thompson and Ruben Seveelaventhan. These candidates were all involved in the occupation and had shown their solidarity with Palestine.
The informal slate (which was more like a non-aggression pact) involved action palestine, the far left, Isoc (partially) and independent greens (partially). Activists on the slate handed out leaflet packs with candidates from all these groups.
As for ’students first’, which was a genuine slate with shared manifestos and slogans, it was an unholy alliance between Labour Students, Jsoc, Conservative Future (robert manning), along with a non-aggression pact from the Liberal Youth. Though Chris Jenkinson and Kate Little were elected with the support of the Students First pact, they are not affiliated and their actions will not be mandated by Labour. Jennie Agg who was featured on students first boxes will probably drop the pact too and will play the a-political journalist card. Other than Oliver Worth, students first will have no-one representing their interests on executive.
The emails above from Action Palestine, I-soc, etc clearly show that their ‘block’ (if thats how you view it) was far, far more successful than the students first block. Also, where these candidates were not elected, in their place were generally moderate greens who are far closer on the spectrum to the pro-palestinians than to students first. Clearly, these elections have been a massive defeat for the right, and a victory for the left, in all parts of the left-wing spectrum (greens, pro-palestinians, etc).