► Elections Regulations Motion to Fourth Council

Paper L of ULU Council 27^th May 2002 stated the findings and conclusions of the Elections Review Group, which was set up at a previous Council meeting. It also mandated:

-                      “the ULU President 2002/2003 [i.e. Charlotte Dawkins] to undertake with Governance Committee a full redraft of the ULU Election Regulations” to incorporate the Elections Review Group’s ideas;

-                      that that redraft be brought “to the first meeting of ULU Council of the Academic Year 2002/2003 [i.e. 7^th October 2002] for approval”.

This did not form part of the 2002 hand-over and was not done. Nominations for elections open on February 3^rd, 2003. There is one Council meeting prior to open of nominations: 4^th Council on January 27^th. For changes to the regulations for this year’s elections to be made, they must be approved by 4^th Council.

Elections Review Group recommendations.

The following are explanations of the regulation changes implied by the Elections Review Group recommendations. They are in the order as laid out in the aforementioned motion, but in the attached proposed motion, the changes are in the order of the actual regulations – hence the numbers all over the place. Everything in the attached proposed motion is explained below.

Paper L, ULU Council 27/5/2002, stated:

·          “This Union resolves 2: To elect all members of the Executive Committee, Chair of Council and London Student Editor by cross campus ballot at the same time”

This would require changing ULU Elections Regulations to remove most distinctions between full-time and part-time Executive Officers, and the London Student Editor.

E.g. change B:2 A from:

Elections for the Officers of the Union shall be held annually during term-time…

To:

Elections for the Officers of the Union, Chair of Council and London Student Editor shall be held annually during term-time…

See attached motion (Resolves 1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 12 & 16).

·          “This Union resolves 3: To hold any elections for unfulfilled or re-opened part-time positions at subsequent meetings of ULU Council.”

This requires no change in the Regulations.

·          “This Union resolves 4: To remove the requirement for an Electoral Recommendation Council, and hold instead a Hustings meeting for all candidates in the elections that is open to all full ULU members.”

This would require for Regulation B:8 F, which sets out the Electoral Recommendation Council, to be removed.

See attached motion (Resolves 14).

This would also require changing the Regulations to state Hustings wherever they now refer to the Electoral Recommendation Council. Regulations for Hustings are already set out in B:6.

See attached motion (Resolves 6 to 10).

·          “This Union resolves 5: To remove all current restrictions on individual campaigning, and insert in their place a code of conduct for campaigning, which should include as a minimum:

5.1                              No candidate may mention another candidate standing in any ULU Elections in any of their campaign publicity

5.2                              All candidates must abide fully by the letter and spirit of ULU’s Equal Opportunities Policy

5.3                              All candidates will be bound by the rules and regulations of the premises on which they are campaigning

5.4                              All candidates must operate within the confines of the law.”

This would require deleting the current text in B:8 I, which reads:

Candidates will not be permitted to circulate or cause to be circulated any material in addition to that described above, including emails or any other electronic communications.

And replacing it with the recommendations above.

See attached motion (Resolves 15).

·          “This Union resolves 6: Change the current nomination requirements for all positions to require a minimum of 10 nominators, all of who must be registered students of the University of London, from at least 3 different colleges or institutes of the University of London”

This would require changing Regulation B:8 D, which currently stipulates that candidates for full-time executive positions must have between 25 and 30 nominators, of which 5 must be members of Union Council, from at least 5 different colleges.

See attached motion (Resolves 13).

·          “This Union resolves 7: Ensure that the regulations exclude Re Open Nominations from being a candidate in any election for a full time position.”

NB: Paper L, ULU Council 27/5/2002, “This Union Notes: 6. That the Review group wishes to see Re Open Nominations as a candidate for ALL elections, but that the Vice-Chancellor has made his position clear that Re Open Nominations is “not acceptable” in any election for full time position, and as a result, this recommendation is not included in this motion”.

This would require removing distinctions between the London Student Editor (currently elected by Council, with RON included) and full-time Executive Officers (currently elected by cross-campus ballot, with RON excluded) by:

Changing B:3 B from

All elections with the exception of the cross campus ballot for Executive Full Time Officers shall include the option…

To:

All elections, with the exception of the Executive Full Time Officers and London Student Editor, shall include the option…

See attached motion (Resolves 4).

Summary

In short, if the attached proposed motion was passed in its entirety, candidates for all Executive Officers, Chair of Council and London Student Editor would be elected by cross-campus ballot, needing only 10 nominators from only 3 Colleges or Institutes, and no nominators need be on Council. All candidates would be able to produce campaigning material, and the London Student Editor would no longer have to run against RON. Finally, there would no longer be a Council meeting dedicated to elections, but instead a Hustings meeting would take place.

James MacColl

Vice-President [Welfare & Student Affairs]