Elections

The executive elections are one of the great events in the University calender. Candidates campaign all day in the lead up, music plays, promises are made and a good time is had by all. From early morning the teams are out in force reinforcing manifestos, chatting, trying to persuade those who've already made their minds up to vote someone else, to put their candidate 2nd or 3rd.

The ballot closes at five and the nervous waiting begins in earnest. At about eight thirty everybody collects in the SU hall and the votes are announced. With no clear favourite, this year was even more exciting and the vote went to four rounds before Ben finally had a clear majority.

Danielle and Adam split the Drama vote and finished 5th and 6th - with just 14 votes between them on the first round. As Danielle was eliminated it was clear that most of her supporters had put Adam second and he leapt into 2nd place overall, where he stayed as first Matty and then Tania fell by the way side. It would have been a similar result for Danielle had she manged to survive the first round. Momentum is hugely important.

So the new SU president is Ben Solomon, who seems a thoroughly reasonable and sensible chap. In many ways he really deserves it for the thoughtfulness and seriousness of his campaign, he judged the electorate brilliantly and mixed some appealing ideas for vamping up the social life of the SU with a clear commitment to inclusive representation. I suspect he'll be very good.