Andrew Bradley takes the reins

Andrew Bradley defeated four rivals in this year’s union elections to become the next president of Warwick’s Students’ Union. The election for president was extremely close, as were several other races. This year also saw a dramatic increase in the number of voters participating.

Students’ Union elections operate by single transferable vote, in which voters number the candidates in order of preference. When tabulating results, votes go through several elimination rounds in which votes for the last-place candidate are transferred to other candidates based on a voter’s second preference (see “how the elections work”). In every race this year, there was no clear winner until the final round of eliminations.

The presidential race saw intense competition between Mitchell Fung and Andrew Bradley. Fung was leading until the final round of eliminations, when Andy Glyde’s, the third-place candidate, votes were transferred to the remaining two candidates. 396 of Glyde’s votes were transferred to Andrew Bradley. This brought Bradley’s final vote total to 1,546, only 85 more than Fung’s.

In the first count of votes, before any elimination rounds, Fung had 1,032 first-choice votes, Bradley had 843, Glyde had 756, Sam Shirley had 687, Asen Geshakov had 500, and votes to re-open nominations totalled 223. A candidate would have needed 2,021 first-choice votes to win the election in the first round of eliminations.

This year’s election attracted nearly 1,000 more voters than last year’s. In total, there were 4,712 individual voters, compared to last year’s 3,772 and 2007’s 3,404. It is likely more international students voted due to the fact that second-place candidate Mitchell Fung is an international student, though the Elections Group do not keep data on the number of votes by international students compared to the number of votes by home students. There was also an increase in votes by Warwick Business School students, from 363 last year to 584 this year, again likely due to the fact that Fung is a Business School student, something he highlighted in his campaign.

Other factors contributing to the vote increase probably include a heightened focus on Union politics following the Gaza protests and the ongoing public conflict between the Union president and Union Council.

Current Union President Stuart Thomson said of the increase in voter turnout, “our main aim this year was to increase engagement with students. And that’s not just an increase democratically, it’s across the board—sports, societies, memberships are up 10 percent, referenda turnout was the highest ever, and again tonight, a thousand more votes than last year, it’s just fantastic.”

Elections Group Chair Christopher Luck said the increase was due “to the calibre of the candidates, [and] especially the amount of effort they put in.”

Only eight votes separated the final two candidates for Societies Officer. James Hall defeated Oliver-John Hemmings 971 to 963. Both were only four votes away from the 967 required to win the race. Andrew Rossall was the fourth-place candidate and Esther Jardim third.

The race for Welfare Officer was also close, with just over 100 votes separating the top two candidates. Sami Wannell won with 1,095 final votes, over Fran Piddlesden with 982. Kirstie Osborne followed in third with Joanne Royle in fourth.

In the contest for Governance and Finance Officer, Andy Perkins won with 1,378 votes to James Hilsdon’s 803. Votes to re-open nominations totalled 169, more than the 146 votes for the last place candidate, Michael Jones. Rich Belfitt was the third-place candidate.

The vote for Communications Officer gave Isaac Newton Acquah a decisive victory. Acquah received 1,346 final-round votes over Andrew Horder’s 935. Tommy Precious was third with 708 intermediate-round votes.

Sports Officer was also a clear-cut race. Alex Twiss won 1,327 votes to Leo Matlock’s 1,014. Sebastian Reid was fifth, Nicola Mulvoy fourth and Laura Holden third.

There was only one candidate nominated for Education Officer, Sumaiya Khaku. She received 1,948 votes, and there were 681 votes for re-opening nominations for the position.

In the election for Students with Disabilities Campaigns Officer, the only candidate, Jack Ashton, received fewer votes than the number of votes to re-open nominations. Ashton, had failed to submit a manifesto in time for the Manifesto Booklet. Union Council will fill part-time positions that had no candidate running or for which re-opening nominations was the top preference, as in this case.

For the remaining part-time positions, Chris Rossdale is the new Executive Committee Chair, Nidhi Badaya is Academic Forum Coordinator, Alex Fowles is Campaigns Forum Coordinator, Gareth Williams is Democracy Committee Chair, Hazel Lim is Societies Committee Chair, Sonny Kombo is Student Sport Committee Chair, Sam Glace is Anti-Racism Campaigns Officer, Lorna Russell is Ethics and Social Justice Campaigns Officer, Lev Taylor is LGBTUA+ Campaigns Officer, and Rory Kinane is Undergraduate Arts Faculty Representative.