Editorial: Election Season so far has been a joke.
Normally, this time of year has posters plastered all over the halls. Debates livestreamed on Facebook, a Massive issue filled with smiling faces of hopeful candidates. Only, instead, student election season is a sad, empty shell of itself. It would be comical if it wasn’t so ... disappointing.
MUSA has two candidates running. Yeah. For an exec of seven positions. ASA also only had two candidates running, for an executive of at least five positions. MAWSA filled all their positions, but only one position was actually contested by more than one candidate. Quite simply, it’s been a shocking election season, and shows a strong level of disengagement from both students and executives.
Having uncontested positions are bad enough. Sure, the spot will be filled, but there’s no opportunity for proper debate, or incentive for any campaign promises to be made, since, you know, it doesn’t really matter. Everyone knows that that person will get the spot, since there’s no one else running, so why bother? Why bother to make a stand on important issues, or promise substantial change? You’ll get the position regardless.
Sure, it’s student politics and there’s always some uncontested positions each year, mostly for small roles that fill up boards. But to have no candidates at all running for certain seats? Even seats such as, oh I don’t know, president? That’s a fucking disaster, let’s be clear. There’s no two ways around it.
Even if those seats get filled through by-elections next year, it’s still a pretty dismal situation. No longer do executive members get the summer to work through and organise plans before executing them through the year; no, they’re thrown right in the deep end. Sure, you can co-opt students onto the board in the meantime, like MUSA probably will and ASA already have, by co-opting the current President and VP as Co-Presidents between December and March. This may solve some work issues, but it’s far from a proper democratic process. By-elections also aren’t as big or important as normal elections. There’s less student engagement and by-in, less time to receive nominations or campaign to the student body. By-elections should be used to fill in the occasional empty seat, not fill out the majority of your executive.
Could this situation have been prevented? It’s hard to say. MUSA made only one Facebook status about nominations, that’s not good enough. But on the other hand, ASA made a goddamn Oscar-worthy video explaining the roles and nomination process, and still only received two candidates. Maybe there’s no winning here. I know Covid-19 hasn’t helped the situation - far from it. And I have sympathy for that, I really do. Executives are overwhelmed and overworked, and so are students. Elections are far from everyone’s mind, and there’s no one to blame for that.
Student execs are, and I hate to say this, important. They’re associations built for you. They’re organisations who campaign for your rights and interests on both a university and government level. Student executives get thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars to work with. To throw events, hire staff, offer financial assistance, all of it. Executives provide crucial welfare services, not to mention foster a vital student culture, from O-Week to Clubs Day to, well, everything.
If the University is doing something naughty, your student executive is meant to be the one to speak up, call them out, or work with them – whatever will help generate change. Executives have a huge amount of power and responsibility, that’s why it’s so paramount to have the opportunity to vote for a candidate that can best represent your interests, whatever that may be. Having empty, hollow student elections robs students of that opportunity.
Worse of all, the biggest executive news in DECADES will be happening next year. The executives are looking to merge! Remember that thing? That thing that was meant to happen this year, but got delayed to this year because of the huge workload left to do? Yeah. Quite frankly, I’m nervous. At least we’ll get some good news stories out of it, huh?
However, it’s not all bleak. There’s still the M@D election to come, so fingers crossed for a few more candidates to end the semester on a cheerier note. Happy election season everyone!
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Caroline