Mystery continues over CitySA election results delay

Students at a Glasgow college continue to be kept in the dark over who their student leaders are for 2012-13 as the mysterious delay over election results continues.

The announcement for the full-time paid president, and two part-time paid vice president roles at City of Glasgow College’s Students’ Association (CitySA) were due to be announced on Friday May 18 after three days of voting, but were shelved at the last minute.

A statement on the college's student intranet portal at the time from the chief returning officer, Natalie Maver, read: “Voting for the Student Presidential Elections has take [sic] place this week and we are delighted with the response. Due to unforeseen circumstances the College is unable to announce the winning candidates today (Friday 18th May) as planned.

“Please be assured that the votes are secure and at this stage remain uncounted. We hope to be able to make the announcements shortly and I will keep you informed of developments.”

However, over a month since that post was made, students' votes still have not been counted and information about what is happening has not been forthcoming leading some students at the college to take to social media to express their displeasure.

Candidates were sent an update last week which failed to say when votes would be counted and the results announced, however, The Journal understands this will now not happen until between July 9-16, the week after the new officers should have taken office.

Following requests from The Journal to the college and chief returning officer to comment on the situation, Roy Gardner, the college's commercial director issued the following joint statement with the chief returning officer today.

"Due to ongoing circumstances, outwith the control of the Chief Returning Officer, the college has not been able to announce the results of the CitySA executive election.

"The College realises that this delay is frustrating to all students and candidates, and we will endeavour to announce the results as soon as is possible.

"The Chief Returning Officer is confident that the election has been carried out in a free, fair and democratic manner and this delay will not compromise the result in any way."

However, failure to explain exactly why the results will not be known until two months after they were expected has prompted further anger and frustration.

Speaking to The Journal, John Gaughan, outgoing vice president education, said: "It is an outrage that students still do not know why there has been a delay, where 'unforeseen' circumstances simply isn't good enough for students.

"This will certainly damage the integrity of the college and the Students' Association, especially when candidates livelihoods are at stake."

Current president, Emma Iwanow, who led the branding and development of the association placing it at the forefront of the student movement in Scotland in the last 12 months, is widely-tipped to see off four other candidates to be elected for a second year.

Iwanow's leadership has seen CitySA play a significant part in the successful Our Future Our Fight campaign, with the association picking up college students' union of the year at the NUS Scotland Awards 2012 in March.

Seven candidates (four for VP education, three for VP activities) ran for the two vice president positions with incumbents Gaughan and Guchi Shahid both vacating their positions at the end of this month.

With the three leaders departing at the end of June, it is unclear how the association will continue to function if new officers are not appointed in time.