Elections EMERSON VIGOUREUX Results Announced! Candidates Who Work for Felix Sweep the Board at This Year’S Elections, Leaving the Union in Complete Shock and Awe
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Sport Games page 9 Bottle match big one Multiplayer gaming page 25 page 17 Guardian Student Newspaper of the Year e student newspaper of Imperial College No. 1,375 • Friday • 2 March 2007 • ffelixelix felixonline.co.uk Harrods’ guitars Elections EMERSON VIGOUREUX results announced! Candidates who work for Felix sweep the board at this year’s elections, leaving the Union in complete shock and awe Andy Sykes cumbent of the role will be ____ tions to all the candidates who Editor-in-chief _______, who beat ___________, weren’t elected, and those who __________ and ____________ re- were but don’t know it yet. Thursday night didn’t see the re- soundingly/narrowly to claim lease of the results for the sabbat- victory. N.B. This copy of Felix is ical and NUS delegate elections, The prestigious posi- interactive; feel free with a shockingly high / low* turn- tion of Felix Editor was to fill it in when (and out of __%. claimed by ________ if) results are an- This year’s elections have been ________ a random nounced. The first somewhat unusual, and have seen outsider / a Felix correct copy deliv- the formation of the Union’s first veteran. ered to the Felix of- “slate” or “party” (mainly from The results mean fice will earn the Southwell Hall), as well as a large that the Union is bearer the prince- number of fresh-faced candidates now run by mostly ly sum of £20. standing for President. new faces / hacks / a If you’d like to Next year’s President will be mixture of hacks and know why the ________________, in a shock/pre- new faces. With three front cover is in- dictable result. S/he won by a huge positions contested by complete, turn to landslide/gnat’s genitalia, with ___ candidates that have page 2 for the com- _ votes compared to nearest rival, worked for Felix in the plete story on this ____________, who got only ____ past, the Union is now year’s elections. votes. This means the new Presi- run by ex-Felix students dent will be the slate candidate / a / has escaped a media scot / a current sabbatical / a girl takeover. / a joke. Congratula- The elections for Deputy Presi- dents proved somewhat more/less interesting. For Deputy President (Education & Welfare), __________ took the majority of the vote, leav- ing __________ in second place. For Deputy President (Clubs & A Fender Pixalator guitar on display at the “Harrods Rocks” Societies), the slate suffered a de- exhibition in Knightsbridge. Security has been tight around feat/trounced the opposition. This the store over the last week as various vintage guitars arrived, makes _________ the winner. including the first Fender Stratocaster ever made. The attempt The hotly-contested position to break the world record for most guitarists jamming together of Deputy President (Finance & had to be cancelled after local residents expressed concern over Services) attracted a large/small the noise levels. number of votes. The next in- 2 felix Friday 2 March 2007 NEWS [email protected] Elections 2007: uhm, no results yet No results by Felix’s deadline day, Union Court called in to deal with a dispute between the President and the Executive Committee, and candidates’ expressing dissatisfaction with the process – Felix explains all Andy Sykes occurred, as the meeting had taken of interest, having seconded or candidates must sign a declaration hassle free elections,” said one Editor-in-chief place in closed session. They were otherwise supported one or more which says that the election is free candidate, who wished to remain not aware Mr Collins had been re- candidate in the sabbatical and/or and fair. So far, very few sabbatical anonymous. Another candidate Election results were not an- moved as Returning Officer for NUS elections. However, even if candidates have signed it. found the elections to be somewhat nounced as anticipated on Thurs- alleged bias, or that Eric Lai had more members of Exec had been Candidates approached by Felix less than satisfactory: “The whole day evening, leaving many (includ- taken over the role for the time be- present, almost all would have who had not signed the declara- thing was a complete fucking sham- ing the candidates) questioning ing. An email was received by all faced this conflict. tion said that they either had out- bles,” adding that he had signed the when they will be available. candidates reminding them to send standing complaints that had not declaration but he regretted doing campaign material for approval Why call the Court? been resolved (such as a Felix Edi- so. One candidate referred to the The initial complaints to [email protected] only, If the Court decides it was not con- tor candidate who has seen some- election as “the most farcical I’ve A complaint was initially made rather than copying Mr Collins in stitutional for Exec to remove Mr one systematically removing their seen in my time at Imperial.” Most against the Returning Officer, John (as had previously happened). Collins as Returning Officer, then posters) or that they felt it was candidates have expressed unhap- Collins (who looks after the whole Neither the removed Returning this does not remove any claim of not appropriate while the status piness with the hustings, one call- election, and is supposed to make Officer nor Mr Lai would reveal any bias against Mr Collins; rather, it of the Returning Officer was still ing it “a complete and unmitigated sure it is run in a fair and unbiased facts about what occurred; the de- forces Exec to meet to discuss the undetermined. farce”. Some candidates expressed manner). The complaint seems to tails were not made public until the complaint again, and decide if the dissatisfaction with Mr Collins’ role have been made in response to a Court Chair, Hamish Common, was allegations of bias are valid. A complete farce as Returning Officer, one citing his post a candidate made on Live! (the involved. Why John Collins has not ap- It appears the candidates are some- apparent inability to keep his anger online CGCU newspaper). The post pealed directly to Council, the su- what disillusioned by the process as in check, though recognising that insinuated that Mr Collins had not The long arm of the Court preme body of the Union, remains well. Felix has approached each of being RO is a difficult task. been entirely truthful in his com- Mr Collins was clearly very un- unknown. A new Exec may well the candidates for comment. “This munications with candidates. happy with the decision, and was make the same decision. sorry debacle has had no effect on The future Shortly afterwards, Mr Collins apparently offered the chance to the outcome whatsoever and even Though all this farcical to-ing and sent an email to the candidate in reconvene Exec to discuss the So what does this all mean? if he [Collins] feels wronged he fro-ing will probably have little ef- question, which included language complaint again rather than pos- Election results will be delayed. For should just stop whinging and take fect on the election results, it has that implied that disciplinary action sibly hold up the election. Felix can how long, no-one knows. Before one for the team to preserve the in- done little to improve the Union’s would be recommended against only assume he rejected this offer, results can be announced, all the tegrity of what were, on the whole, public face. the candidate. The candidate then as the newly-created Union Court asked for the post to be removed. has been dragged into play. It seems that this candidate felt An oddity of this situation is that discriminated against by Mr Col- Mr Collins is not the one who made lins for this and other reasons, and the appeal to Court; instead, the ap- therefore filed a complaint. Other peal was made by Jad Marrouche, complaints against Mr Collins RSCU President, who was not were also discussed by the Execu- present at the Exec meeting and tive, who met in closed session last has so far stayed relatively clear of Thursday (which means the media central Union politics. Mr Collins had no access to the proceedings) has been spotted discussing the to discuss them. Felix is not privy to matter in the RSCU office recently. the details of the complaints. The Court has been asked to de- cide if the decision to remove John Secrecy Collins as Returning Officer was At the closed session, Mr Collins constitutional. The appeal centres presented his defence against the on four points; insufficient time to allegations of bias. However, Exec consider the issue, conflicts of in- voted to remove him as Returning terest by members of Exec, rele- Officer with immediate effect. vant evidence unavailable, and pro- John appears to have taken the cedural irregularities (otherwise decision very badly, and was later known as poor quality hackery). seen in the Quad haranguing at Mr Collins apparently convened least one member of the five-strong the meeting himself, which lasted Exec with expletives. for more than three hours, casting Up until Tuesday this week, the doubts on the first point. It is true candidates had no idea what had that Exec members faced conflicts A pram. Toys exiting at high speed not pictured felix 1,375 Friday 02.03.07 JCR breakfasts Games for senile PCs “I am one of the select staunch “If you’re looking for games that supporters of the ‘fry-up’ breakfast won’t kill the sluggish excuse for since its glory days as the ‘All Day a PC you’ve got running MatLab at Breakfast’ in the JCR.