UCLU Election campaigning turns nasty

The final week of campaigning in the UCLU Elections was marred by controversy yesterday, in the unlikely setting of the UCL Memes Facebook page.

The group, normally associated with some good laughs at the expense of the Strand Poly, became embroiled in the UCL political minefield. A meme was posted that seemingly supported the candidacy of Swathi Rajagopal who is running for Community Officer, with the tagline ‘Be a Smartie, Vote for Swathi’.

Consequently, this invited criticism from an opposing candidate, Daniel Bowman, who questioned whether it was fair that a meme be shown on such a popular page supporting another candidate. The complaint was swiftly deleted and Daniel himself was ejected from the group, with the organiser of the page citing a personal attack by Daniel on his running of the page.

In a comment to The Buzz, Daniel responded: “that it’s fair enough for them to use the page to support their friend if that’s what they want to do but it’s a shame that UCL Memes, which was supposed to be a bit of fun, has now become politicised and authoritarian, everything it was originally supposed to get away from, by deleting me and my posts.”

After further complaints on the page from other users at this perceived injustice, the original meme was removed and the Memes page resumed its usual stellar service, with Daniel adding that he wasn’t angry and that it had simply been "a bit shocking to be deleted.”  

Furthermore, this week Ava Lloyd, who is running for Democracy and Communications officer had her election posters torn down around campus. Though at time of publication, Ava was unavailable to comment, this regrettable occurrence indicates what a serious business the UCLU elections have become. Let’s try and keep it clean, people.