Democracy on hold at Napier

The results of the Napier Students’ Association (NSA) election have been withheld while the ruling body seeks external advice after receiving complaints about the electoral process.

The news came on Monday after a week of protests. One of the presidential candidates withdrew, voting records were made available online and a motion of no confidence in the current president was passed by the student Senate.

It had been hoped that the Election Committee would announce whether or not the results of last week’s election were to stand, or if a new election would be ordered. In an e-mail to students, Ollie Cruickshank, the Executive’s representative on the Elections committee, said:

“Following complaints about the election process, the Elections Committee has requested that Edinburgh Napier’s C&IT Services withhold the results from all parties, including the Elections Committee itself and the outcome of advice from a variety of external agencies.

“It would hope to make the information available as soon as possible. In the meantime it apologises to voters, and especially to those who contested the campaign and are awaiting results.”

It is still unclear when the results will be released.

Last week’s election was strewn with problems after the Election Committee ordered that copies of the last issue of The Journal were to be removed from all Napier campuses. Up-to-the-minute election results were also made available after a technology breakdown, with individual students’ votes published on the voting site.

Protests were held throughout the week at various locations across Napier campuses, culminating in a demonstration outside the Scottish parliament. Nathan Sparling, who had been standing for president, withdrew from the election to join the protesters. His decision left Kasia Bylinska, the current president who is seeking re-election, as the only candidate for the role.

However, Ms Blyinska’s future is uncertain after an NSA Emergency senate passed a motion of no confidence in her last Friday. They stopped short of ordering her dismissal, which would have prevented her re-election, but sources close to her opponents have suggested that a further Emergency Meeting could be called in the event that she is re-elected.

Ms Bylinska was asked to comment, but was unable to do so given that the election has not been concluded.

Reese Campbell, a candidate for Treasurer and Student Activities Officer during the elections, told The Journal he was disappointed by the latest development.

“The Election Committee are making all these decisions slowly in the background and I think they need more regular communication with students. I appreciate that they’ve have had a hard job this week but they’ve had since Wednesday when the technical problems first arose to seek external advice about this.

“In my opinion the elections should have been halted, the problem fixed and then started again from scratch.”

Mr Campbell joined in the protests, and believes that the election should be scrapped;

“There is absolutely no way the election results can stand now and I think that’s the opinion of many people. NSA have themselves made the problem into more of a fuss because of they way they’ve dragged them out. They are not very good at communicating and has been very frustrating for all involved.”