Queen Margaret students elect new president

Blain Murphy and Christie McMonagle were comfortably elected president and vice president of Queen Margaret University Student Union (QMUSA) on Tuesday 2 March.

With more than a 200 vote difference between them and their nearest rivals and few battles in the other positions there were no close races.

Mr Murphy told The Journal: “The feeling of winning and being the new Student President is a lot like waiting in bed on Christmas Eve for Christmas morning to arrive.”

Iona Geddes was elected Marketing and Communications officer in an uncontested race, yet there were no nominations for the other four officer positions.

Ms McMonagle told The Journal: “There is a certain amount of apathy around the students at the moment. Many of them seem tired of university by this point in the year and we hope that by re-opening these positions in September we can get in some new blood and get new interest in the union.”

Mr Murphy continued: “I ran this year because I ran last year as the ‘joke candidate’ and kind of fell in love with the union. I was a ‘badass Mexican’, and during the running I got to know the union staff and the president and vice president. It was from there that I decided that I would run the following year.”

Whilst the election turnout was up on last year, still only 750 students out of 4,650 voted. Ms McMonagle said: “I don’t feel politics is accessible enough for students. People are so unused to trawling through information and this isn’t what students want to do."

Officially Mr Murphy and Ms Monagle do not take over from the current sabbatical team until June, but they have already begun working with President Rio Floreza.

When asked what they will take from this year's team, Ms Monagle said: “Obviously there are things that we want to do in our own way, but we are still doing our handover and have lots of things to think about before June about what we want to keep and change.

“There are some really great things that Rio and Andrew have done in the last two years that we would be very keen to keep.”

The QMUSU elections mark the start of political careers for the pair, though Mr Murphy said he has “no plans for a career in politics”, whilst Ms Monagle announced that “Downing Street and Britain better get ready”.