Less than HALF of people have voted so far in the SUSU Elections compared to last year

The Tab has learned today that less than HALF the number of people have voted in this year’s SUSU Elections in comparison to last year.

An email sent out to all candidates today informed candidates that less people have voted, and the number of visitors to the main voting website has dropped by 2,000.

The verdict – chances are this year’s turnout will be a few thousand less than last year.

Is this the end for our student democracy?

This result isn’t really surprising, as the number of people campaigning this year has changed massively. Normally the candidates for President have the biggest campaign teams, and there were 8 candidates for President last year. There are only two this year.

We learned prior to the elections this year that a lot of potentials for President were actually “put off” running upon hearing Sam Ling was re-running. Without wanting to throw any accusations around, is it possible that by being so damn good at his job, Sam Ling has dismantled our student democracy?

UPDATE: For more information on statistics on the SUSU elections, visit http://www.susu.org/elections/sabbatical/stats

I did a naughty 28 February 2012 at 2:45 PM

I heart Sam ling

Reply

Rob 28 February 2012 at 7:03 PM

It may be down to a complete lack of activity on the Concourse compared to last year, targeting lecture theaters has been a major aim this year but it has a big flaw in that many big lecture theaters (physics, EEE, etc) contain the same people each time, and small lecture theaters get left meaning potentially thousands of unaware voters.

Chris Baker 28 February 2012 at 9:43 PM