Officer elections voting opens

**Election fever has gripped campus this week as campaigning started for the 2013 Students’ Union (SU) officer elections.**

[Voting](http://www.warwicksu.com/democracy/) will open at 9am on Wednesday February 27 and will close at 9pm on Friday March 1.

29 students are running for the seven full time sabbatical officer positions. In total 11 women and 18 men are running.

Over half of the women running (six) are standing for welfare and campaigns officer and all the candidates for president are men.

47 candidates are running for all 16 elected posts (a lot of candidates are running for NUS National Conference delegate in addition to another position).

Education officer and postgraduate officer are the least contested positions with two candidates each, whereas welfare and campaigns has the most candidates (eight).

Silkie Cragg, the SU’s current societies officer was disappointed at the number of female candidates. “It’s genuinely sad and I am concerned that those statistics that show that women don’t run for or win office deter people from putting themselves forward. That’s why Anna, Bam and I wrote our blog post encouraging more women to run.”

Candidates for many positions have been talking to students about their manifestos around campus, and have adorned railings and bus stops with their posters.

An [election question time](https://theboar.org/news/2013/feb/27/elections-week-begins-candidate-question-time/) has been held over the past two days, where students were given the chance to grill prospective candidates about their pledges.

Many students expressed their excitement about the mood on campus.

“I’m a big fan of elections and the hype in the SU that surrounds them,” said Paul O’Connor, a second-year Psychology student.

Ting Ting Jennifer Chan said: “Everyone I know is talking about the elections, and as I know a lot of the candidates, everyone around me is either excited, anxious or busy.”

Tom Draper, a second-year Film Studies student agreed. He said: “I definitely think it’s important to have a say in student politics and to vote for someone who best reflects your own particular views.”

Some students were less enthusiastic, however. Final-year Maths student Stephen Young detected a feeling of “apathy” around campus, and Maths student Luke Cohen said the posters and displays around campus were “a bit over-the-top.”

Marc Newall said he would only be voting in the elections which would benefit Thai Boxing club, of which he is the social secretary: “I haven’t given much thought to the other campaigns,” he added.

The results will be announced in a results party at 10pm on Friday of week eight.