Integrity of faculty elections in doubt
The recent RCSU elections have called into question the Union's constitution rules regarding the proposing of candidates. At hustings, each candidate must have a proposer who may speak on the candidate's behalf. If nothing else, the act of proposing a candidate suggests that the proposer supports that candidate for the position they are standing for. Jad Marrouche, who is standing for RCSU President (alongside Daniel Lipinski, In Hoi, Stephen Brown, and Serge Lioutyi), was proposed at hustings last week by Alex Guite, who is running the RON (Re-Open Nominations) campaign. Some have called into question the validity of this, as RON is supposed to be an independent candidate for those voters who are dissatisfied with all the candidates.
The Union constitution does not have a specific rule forbidding candidates going for the same position to propose each other at hustings, nor any rule forbidding the candidate representing RON to propose another candidate. As such, there has been no violation of election rules by either Marrouche or Guite, who commented:
"We've done nothing wrong". The constitution states that "the Returning Officer shall determine the date and format of hustings". Himantha Jayasekara, the Returning Officer, stated that he was well aware that Guite was proposing Marrouche, when he asked him to run the RON campaign.
In the CGCU elections, the nominations for President have to be opened again next term after the only candidate withdrew from the election. Jonathan James, a second year Aeronautical Engineering student, made a statement on the CGCU Live website, citing the everincreasing workload of the position as his reason for standing down. The President is a paid sabbatical position throughout the summer holidays, paid by an Imperial College alumni fund, but in term time it becomes an unpaid volunteer position. Mr. James said that he was unable to give the dedication required to the position at this point in his degree. In comparison, the position of Medic President is a paid sabbatical position throughout the academic year.
Current CGCU President, Siddarth Singh, commented: "It's a disappointment, but we understand that he has his priorities and this highlights the further need for CGCU to have a full time sabbatical officer; the level of work and commitment is increasing all the time and to compete with the Medics and to offer our students the best services and facilities we can requires a sabbatical officer. We will re-open nominations next term with ICU elections for this and other positions."
