Exclusive: UEA Union Officers’ election results announced

With a record breaking turnout of 18 per cent of students voting, there’s some big changes in Union House. 

Theo Antoniou-Phillips swooped to victory with an astonishing 1141 votes in the first round, beating his nearest competition, Philippa Costello, by 656 votes.

He said: “Obviously I’m really pleased with the result, but I’ve had some truly amazing support along the way, I could not have done it without them.

Every candidate had an amazing campaign, and everyone had fantastic manifestos.

For me, turn out of votes still wasn’t what it could have been, which shows that everyone in the SU needs to work to show we are here for UEA students.”

Yinbo Yu has handed over the reins of Activities and Opportunities Officer to Joseph Zilch.

Zilch zoomed past his competition with 1174 votes in the second round.

Amy Rust narrowly pipped Sam Jones to the post of Campaigns and Democracy Officer by just 16 votes. She won 859 votes.

Amy said: “I feel completely overwhelmed by the students at UEA electing me! It hasn’t quite sunk in yet but I’m already looking forward to working on relevant campaigns for students across campus

There was a disappointingly low turnout for the Postgraduate Education Officer with just 199 students voting. Madeleine Colledge won in the first round with 108 votes beating her nearest competition Dan Nash who only managed to score 42 votes.

In the most controversial election of the evening, Jo Swo stormed to victory with a whopping UEA record-breaking 1330 votes in the first round.

Over the last week there have been calls for people to vote to Re-Open Nominations in protest of Swo’s campaign and it seems like hundreds of you did. RON racked up nearly 800 votes.

Some unhappy anonymous students took to Yik Yak to vent their frustrations at the result.

Jo said of her win: “I want to thank everyone who supported me and who voted for me, I’m so excited to carry on with the work I’ve been doing in the last year and so buzzed to have beaten the record for most votes!”

Moving on to the part-time positions, newly elected Environment Officer Veronica White beat Jack Spoor in the second with 948 votes to 655.

Ethical Issues Officer was won by Emmanuel Agu in the third round with 856 votes and Ethnic Minorities Officer was won by Tarun Sridhar with 258 votes.

Emmanuel said: “I’m happy to have won this position, and even happier ethical issues officer has seen broken a records in terms of students voting for this position. I’m hoping from now on, we as a student body start taking this position seriously, and I’m eager to devote my time and effort into this position.”

Tarun said: “I’m humbled by the number of students who voted for me and I cannot wait to work with all ethnic minority groups to help improve their experience at UEA .”

Malaika Jaovisidha won the position of International Officer beating her nearest rival Jean Roeting by 48 votes in the fourth round.

She said: “I’m really happy to have won. I’m super excited about the role. But also great job to all the other candidates against me, it was a really close contest between us.”

Mature Students Officer proved one of the tightest races of the night. Louise Rudd beat Kara Langford to the position by just six votes. Louise gained 109 votes in the second round, whilst Kara managed 103.

Students with Disabilities Officer was won by Kate Snape with over double the votes of her nearest rival Emily Cutler.

LGBT+ Officer (Open Place) was won by Sharmin Hoque with 205 votes in the first round.

She said “I really enjoyed running in this election, it allowed me to get the views of lots of students who next year I will fight for.

“I thank everyone who supported me and hope I can be the best officer I can be next year. I can’t wait.”

LGBT+ Officer (Transgender and Non-Binary Place), a new position for this year, was unsurprisingly won by Lee Brown with 285 votes – he was the only person running for it.

He said “I’m really pleased to see so many students turned out to vote for me, and was so pleased to see how many other officers were supported.

I hope that each new officer can make a difference, and prove that UEA is an open minded university, that supports student welfare and does give a damn – no matter what YikYak and other sources think.”

Women’s Officer was won by Abbie Mulcairn with 552 votes.

And finally the position that no one really understands – Non-portfolio Officer. Chris Balls received the 376.2 votes making him the most popular No-Po officer. Jack Robinson, Tom Etheridge and Finn Northrop were also elected in the last round.

Tab fave Eddi drowning their sorrows

Chris said, “I’m so happy that I won in my election for Non-Portfolio Officer. I am really optimistic about what I can achieve next year, fighting for every single student on the issues that effect them most.”

A source close to the Union told The Tab “The total number of students voting was 3400 – a UEA record. Without the Postgraduate Education Officer result is probably a UK record for undergrad percentage turnout”

So that’s it for another year. Thank God.