The latest round of Edinburgh University Student Association (EUSA) elections have concluded.
Ash Scholz was elected President, Syjil Ramjuthan was voted in as vice president of Welfare, and Kat Amott is the new vice president of Education. Meanwhile, John Rappa was re-elected vice president of activities and Services. The winner of the vice president of community race remains unannounced pending an EUSA investigation.
In their acceptance remarks, Rappa noted that election turnout had reached its
highest level since the pandemic. This may have been down to dissatisfied students making their voices heard amidst gender-based violence on campus and an enduring cost-of-living crisis.
The elections certainly conclude a rancorous contest.
At the outset of the campaigning season, VP Community candidate Robyn Woof claimed that the university management sought to block her from standing, leaning on EUSA in the process. She threatened to take the university to court if they prevented her from carrying out her duties if elected.
Then, some candidates who were advocating for university divestment from firms implicated in Israel’s assaults on Palestinians had their posters torn down and defaced
In the aftermath, Woof made comments on social media that led pro-Palestinian groups Justice for Palestine Society (JPS) and Kehillah to publicly retract their endorsements of her candidacy.
On Thursday night, an extraordinary video emerged of Gefei Mu, a candidate for VP Education, which he had posted to the Chinese social media site Bilibili.
In Mu’s vitriolic video, he railed against progressive candidates, accusing them of ‘colluding’ and labelling their policies “extreme.”
Mu also launched a personal attack on one candidate, misgendering her and mocking a picture of her at a vigil for trans people.
The clip drew condemnation from all three presidential hopefuls, while Mu’s policies, centred around boosting AI, clearly failed to resonate with the student electorate. He won just 334 votes.
Then, Friday’s results night was rocked as outgoing student association president Dora Herndon abruptly announced that the result for VP Community was suspended due to “an ongoing investigation into a breach of [EUSA’s] electoral law by a candidate,” leading to gasps in the Pleasance Theatre.
It was not until Friday 14 March that the successful VP Community candidate was announced as Arkit Ghimire.
It is the second such instance in three years. In 2022, one presidential candidate was disqualified due to a breach of campaigning rules.
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