News

By the time Critic is being read by all of our many [several] fans, the by-election results for President will be final, as voting closed at 4pm Friday June 3. Based on the results, the relative success of the candidates’ campaigns should now be obvious.

However, prior to voting closing Critic did some investigative journalism to find out what platforms the candidates campaigned on, and what you can expect from the new President of OUSA.
 
Four candidates, three of whom were current Executive members while campaigning, ran for the position of President. Critic understands that the first day of voting saw a record number of students cast their votes, with over 1600 people voting on the Presidential candidates. On the second day, however, the voting page went down for a period of time, Critic understanding that from at approximately 9am till 1pm the website crashed.
 
Administrative Vice-President Bradley Russell campaigned on a platform of “Have Your Slice,” an advertisement in Critic and via his Facebook event voting page. Critic isn’t sure about what we’re meant to be having a slice of, but the image suggests a mandarin. At the time of going to print, Russell had 123 people “attending” the event to vote for him.
 
Colleges and Communications Representative Francisco Hernandez went big on the chalking around campus during his campaign. Critic walked over numerous chalk commands to “Vote Fran for Pres,” and promising that along with “Care, Commitment, and Communication,” Hernandez also had a “Zombie Apocalypse Contingency Plan.” What a relief. He was also handing out squares of chocolate to prospective voters, so anyone who voted for him at least had a win on that front. 71 people were “attending” his Facebook event as of Thursday evening.
 
Welfare Representative Shonelle Eastwood campaigned on the platform of experience, claiming that her constitutional knowledge and time on the Executive made her the best candidate to see OUSA through the rest of 2011. Eastwood also apparently aspires to be a Pokemon trainer, and Critic saw a chalked hopscotch grid outside the Richardson Building which led to the final step of “Vote Shonelle.” This might have provided some good exam procrastination/burnt off the sugar rush from Hernandez’s chocolate squares but Critic was too self-conscious to have a go as no-one else seemed to be playing. At the time Critic went to print, Eastwood had 54 people attending her Facebook event.
 
The only non-Exec member, commerce Student Logan Edgar, campaigned on a platform of being “The People’s President.” His knowledge of economic policies was apparently demonstrated by his B- grade in the BSNS104 midterm, and in his Critic blurb, Edgar told students to vote for him because “It’ll be funny.” Other notable policies included “no more natural disasters,” and “better academic support for BA and BComs.” Let’s be honest here Logan, if you need academic support to get either of those degrees it’s probably time to transfer to Waikato.
 
971 people were attending the event to vote for Edgar at the time Critic went to print. That is approximately more than all the other candidates combined.
 
Critic understands that a number of complaints were lodged during the election process. Returning Officer Imogen Roth was prevented from commenting on this until the end of the election due to the election rules, but from some Facebook stalking we understand that at least two complaints had been laid against Edgar.
 
On the “Logan Edgar for OUSA President” page, Edgar has “a wee growl” because he “just about got kicked off election because of stuff my mates have written about my competitors.” Edgar encouraged supporters to “keep it a clean fight, I don’t need to fight dirty to pump these shit yarns in the poll.” Bright spark and probable future beneficiary Philip Menzies commented on the wall of “Voting for Logan Edgar” that he had “‘borrowed’ flatmate’s ID cards and voted for them too!” Edgar commented below, “bro your not allowed to do that and have landed me in trouble.”
 
As an aside, Critic wonders how Menzies did in his BSNS104 midterm.