Elections Key Principles

The key principles of elections should be:

• Single Transferable Vote leads to the most agreeable candidates winning the election, as selected by the electorate
• Decision making and accountability must align, and so Deputy Returning Officers should be given autonomy to run elections and encouraged to take responsibility for decisions made
• A party neutral to the elections should serve as the Returning Officer, and be empowered to hear appeals of Deputy Returning Officer actions and decisions
• Returning Officers and Deputy Returning Officers make the best decisions when they keep in mind their various duties and the tensions between them. In hierarchical order, the duties are;
  • A duty to ensure the electorate is enabled to make an informed choice and feels that they are well served by the election,
  • A duty to the candidates to run a fair and fun election, supporting meaningful interactions with students, and
  • A duty to The SU as a corporation, managing risks as they arise, and ensuing staff and areas involved in election delivery are well resourced.
• An agreed set of rules stays in place from the open of nominations to the announcement of results, with Returning Officers and Deputy Returning Officers offering interpretations as necessary, but not changes
• Laws of the land, including university rules, should be supplemented as lightly as possible by election rules, leaving as much room as possible for candidates to choose how and where to campaign
• Elections should be planned in a way that encourages styles of campaigning that students enjoy, while discouraging styles of campaigning that students do not enjoy
• Elections should be planned in a way that upholds candidate wellness and allows them opportunities to showcase themselves and their ideas
• Elections should be planned in a way that encourages candidates to resolve concerns informally, rewards candidates not found responsible for any rules breaches, and indirectly rewards candidates for focusing on their campaign rather than submitting complaints about the campaigns of others
• Online actions and in-person actions by candidates or their campaigns will be held to the same high standard, with candidates expected to role model healthy online behaviour
• Grievances should be taken seriously, rigorously investigated, with the results promptly communicated. The standard of a preponderance of the evidence is best when evaluating grievances
• Sanctions should be applied in a reasonably proportionate manner
• Results should not be announced until they are certain