Students brace themselves for elections

It’s that time of year again, when online harassment becomes acceptable, thousands of fliers fill your coat pockets and your best friends become scarily obsessed about their jumpers matching their chosen campaign colour. Welcome to Election Week (yes, we know that’s actually next week).

Nominations opened today for over 43 different positions in the Students Association and the Athletics Union (School Presidents are later apparently). For the first time ever, voting will be done online and will cover a 36 hour period (starting 6 am on Thursday 15th of March and finishing at 6pm on Friday 16th). Some students have worried that this innovation may well affect the ‘carnival atmosphere’ of previous years, while others cannot wait to use their phones to decide the fate of hundreds of people. 

Traditionally, St Andrews has one the highest voter turnouts in the country when it comes to Student Elections (the year before last was record breaking). David Graves, Elections Officer and Director of Student Development and Actives, told The Stand that he “think[s] it has something to do with St Andrews being a small university town. You’re bound to know someone running for something.” As there are 36 Student Association positions up for grabs and 7 for the Athletic Union, with several candidates contesting each position, this seems a likely explanation.

When asked to comment on how the election preparations were going, Mr Graves told The Stand to bugger off: “I’m incredibly stressed right now.” 

The Stand will be covering the elections with a series of specials and interviews but won’t be endorsing any specific candidates (whoever sent us that brown envelope can come pick it up). 

Written by the newsstand team