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ISSUE 743 8 MAR 2023 exepose.com @Exepose
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1987
Turnout in Guild Elections drops to 12 per cent
Livvy Mason-Myhill and Pollyanna Roberts Deputy Editors
Prices increase for university postgrad accomodation Page 3
In conversation with Foundation for Uyghur Freedom Page 9
Live review: Wallows Page 20
O
NLY 12 per cent of the student body voted in the recent Students’ Guild elections, a turnout below half of the 26 per cent turnout experienced in 2019. This decrease in voter turnout continues a downward trend in election participation over the last five years. 3923 students voted in the 2023 elections, compared to 5609 in 2019. This is despite overall increases in student numbers at the University. The Students’ Guild election results were recently announced on the 24th March. The results followed a 31-hour voting period in which University of Exeter students had the opportunity to vote for the candidates that they wanted to see as their Guild officers for the next academic year. The vote was conducted using a single transferable voting system, meaning that voters used ranked-choice voting, with each voter casting a single ballot, ranking the candidates in order of preference. The Guild officer positions up for election were Guild President, AU President, Education Officer, Communities and Equality Officer, Societies and Employability Officer and Student Living Officer. Six candidates ran for the position of Guild President: Emma de Saram, Jack Liversedge, Tejas Nagpal, Mathias La Pira, Manan Shah and Captain ‘Trey’ Hook Tallon. Gee Burnett and Brianna Cummins ran for the posi-
Image: Exeter Students’ Guild
tion of AU president while Alex Stanley was the sole candidate for Education Officer. Mia Robillard-Day and Khurram Usman competed for the position of Communities and Equality Officer. Rhys Wallis and Honey Bharat Somaya ran for the position of Societies and Employability Officer while Pip Shaw and Cavanagh Davis-Holmes contended for the position of Student Living Officer. The Guild election results night kicked off with a speech from the Guild’s Emily de Ritter stating “elections are an important part of the university ex-
perience. Your elected officers play a vital role in holding the University to account and campaigning on your behalf.” 3923 students cast their vote over the voting period, a turnout of 12.3 per cent of the student body. The Guild also announced they would be planting 4000 trees for each student who voted. In the first win of the night, Pip Shaw was elected as Student Living Officer. The vote quota was 1205 votes. In stage one, Cavanagh Davis-Holmes received 385 votes and Pip Shaw received 1850 votes.
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Images (top to bottom): Rachel Cunningham, Jack Fitzsimmons Flickr, Pollyanna Roberts
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The next results that were announced were for the position of Education Officer, with Alex Stanley enjoying an easy win as the sole candidate. In the first stage of voting, the vote quota was 1338.5 votes and Alex Stanley received 2359. Rhys Wallis went on to win the race for Societies and Employability Officer. In the first stage of voting, the vote quota was 1260.5 votes. Rhys Wallis received 1592 votes, Honey Bharat Somaya received 750. Continued on page 4