Revealed: Election Scandal

The Tab hears about false campaigning allegations.

The words ‘Student Union Elections’ create only one image…annoying students you hardly know scattered around campus trying to shove flyers down your throat… (As if it wasn’t already difficult to make it to your 9am in time having been out the night before!). That doesn’t mean that the election don’t get as scandalous as your nights out though!

No one really knows what the Student Union elections entail. That’s why, here at The Tab, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to find out all the important information, such as bitchy rivalry and unfair competition.

We should point out that Dan Flatt, this year’s winner of the Student Union President position, refused to comment on the elections, claiming that the “the SU are only affiliated with The Ripple”. Fortunately for us, his rival Marios Papachristodoulou, had plenty to say concerning secret alliances, false campaigns and the infamous ‘Hitler’ video.

Part of Marios’s campaign

Electra Siafakas (ES): Throughout the campaigning period, did you see any extreme rivalries form between the candidates?

Marios Papachristodoulou (MP): Well it almost seemed like it was the British candidates versus the International candidates this year. Students running for the positions of Engagement Officer, President and Education Experience were forming alliances. They shared campaign teams and even shared each other’s promotional t-shirts.

ES: What about the infamous ‘Hitler’ video attacking Dan Flatt, your main rival?

MP: The video victimised Dan Flatt. People on my campaign team were worried that the video was made to accuse me and weaken my campaign. By victimising him, they were afraid he would gain more votes. We (Flatt) have no beef between us though, it’s nothing personal.

ES: What did you think of your rival’s campaign?

MP: To a certain extent, it was somewhat a false campaign. Flatt’s leaflets said: ‘Re-elect Dan Flatt for President’ which was purposefully misleading. He never was President and with the ignorance of most of the students, this was very misleading.

Dan’s campaign poster

ES: Do you have any general criticisms about the elections and how they were run?

MP: When it came to counting the votes, surprisingly the system is not fully automatic. In addition to that, the people counting the votes were colleagues and friends of certain candidates who surprisingly won. This criticism does not come from me however, but others who brought it to my attention. Other than that, the participation of students is minimal, as they don’t actually care or are unaware, which isn’t the candidates fault. It’s the Student Union’s fault. There also shouldn’t be restricted budgets of 100 pounds for the candidates’ campaigning as some candidates still went over the budget. Unfortunately, I was one of the students who followed the budget and lost.

You can read about further election scandal here!