On Tuesday last week nominations for the VUWSA executive elections closed. There are five positions to be filled and only three names had been received. At the student Representative Council (SRC) meeting on Wednesday it was resolved that the elections committee be asked to reopen nominations and set the date of the election back. The committee has refused to do this, and a full-scale constitutional wrangle could be in the making.

The election should have been held at the en end of last year, but when no one came forward for the five positions people were co-opted onto the executive as interim officers.. The five positions are: President, Secretary, SRC Coordinator. Cultural Affairs Officer and Sports Officer. At the moment interim President Lindy Cassidy, interim Secretary John Hebenton and interim Cultural Affairs Officer Steve O'Connor are the only people standing.

This means that the important position of SRC Coordinator (responsible for the coordination of all SRC officer's work, advertising SRCs and preparing the SRC handbook) will go unfilled. Having no Sports Officer will also considerably hinder sporting activities on campus.

The election committee is composed of Gyles Beckford (chair), John Blincoe and Andy Moore-Jones. Moore-Jones is recently out of hospital so has not been significantly involved. It appears the committee feels that adequate publicity had been given to the election and thus no further candidates would be be likely to emerge, and is also worried about setting a dangerous precedent. Several points need to be made. Firstly, the SRC at which all students can attend and vote is the most direct expression of student opinion catered for by the constitution. The election committee is not required to abide by its wishes but we have a right to expect that they will be taken notice of.

Bad Publicity

Publicity for the election has not been at all adequate. Salient was informed late on Friday 10 March that nominations were open.

As the paper is sent to the printers on Friday evening there was not enough time to place a proper notice, but we did manage to squeeze the information into a comer. It wasn't until the next issue that we could treat the matter properly. This gave people just one day to get their nominations in.

Returning Officer Andrew Tees did prepare a leaflet but it was a shoddy piece of work, done in scratchy handwriting with nothing on it to catch the eye. Furthermore the position of Sports Officer wasn't even mentioned.

More Candidates

Since nominations closed four more people have applied. None of these is for Sports Officer, but one is for the other position that would remain vacant, SRC Coordinator. If the nominations reopened there is no reason reason to expect that even more names would not be forthcoming.

There are technical way of overcoming the problem. The new executive could resign en masse so new elections would have to be held. But an election costs $400 of students' association money. It is farcical to spend that amount on just three people standing without any opposition, even more so to spend it twice.

A legal opinion given to VUWSA's lawyers states that if the election is to go ahead as the committee intends it could be declared invalid on grounds of inadequate publicity.

What Precedent?

The committee's fears about setting a precedent whereby nominations might on some future occasion be left open indefinately, or until some jackup could be arranged must be countered by the precedent they themselves are setting. Executive elections are not just a formality in student life but a cornerstone of the association's activities. The primary role of SRC is another cornerstone. The spirit of the constitution clearly underlines this. We are being asked to spend a lot of money on what has basically been an organisational fiasco.

There seems to be only one immediate course of action, and that is to try to overturn the committee's decision at the AGM on Thursday. It is not certain as yet whether this can be done. The constitution cannot be changed at this late stage, but a clear interpretation will have to be made. So if you want to get in on the action, come along to the Union Hall at high noon. Sparks should fly.

Simon Wilson