Anna Donegan wins EUSU presidential election

Anna Donegan has been elected Edinburgh University Sports Union president for the 2012/13 academic year.

Donegan told The Journal: “The other two candidates were quite strong, so I went into today thinking ‘who knows what’s going to happen?’”
The intriguing three-way battle ended in disappointment for Kirsten Chung and Michael Henderson-Sowerby. Despite the defeated candidates featuring more significantly at the hustings several days prior, Donegan was suitably impressive to secure the students’ approval. Said Donegan: “I didn’t get asked that many questions so I wondered if they actually knew who I am.”

Asked what her first priority for next year will be, the president-elect said she would be “working on making sport inspiring to everyone involved.”
The election result was announced to generous applause at EUSU’s Annual General Meeting, held in George Square Lecture Theatre, before elections were held for the Union’s other executive offices. An Alternative Vote (AV) system was used in the presidential election, with students able to cast their votes through their MyEd accounts over a two-day period.

This year is the first in which electronic clickers have been used to register votes, resulting in perhaps the most fast-paced Sports Union AGM ever. Sweeping painlessly through the President’s and Treasurer’s reports, the election of next year’s executives gave the crowd a chance to try out the new equipment. It was, perhaps surprisingly, a simple voting method with few if any teething problems.
With voting open for one minute, returning officer and current presidential incumbent Sam Trett expressed his disappointment at being unable to secure a Countdown-clock for the evening.

Rob Tate was elected unopposed as honourary treasurer before Josh Hooper beat Catherine Sykes to the post of vice president. Saul Gerald was elected unchallenged to the post of vice president of intra-mural sports while Sally Abernethy, Kirsty McConnell and Carla Santoni were elected similarly unopposed to the posts of publicity officer, alumni officer and intra-mural coordinator respectively. Sarah Nimmo then edged the absent Jo Richardson to secure events officer.

The evening concluded with Trett in bullish mood, ensuring proposed new measures were pushed through. The University’s cheerleading and kickboxing clubs have each been made full member clubs for next year, while the clay pigeon shooters have achieved associate member status.