Final Results of Student Poll

Two present members of the Students' Association Executive, President Peter Wilson, and Sports Officer Don Carson, were easily re-elected in the elections held at the beginning of this month. The other successful candidate was Ken Howell for Man Vice-President. Wilson, whose campaign manager wanted him to run on the slogan 'A vote for anyone else is a vote for Rotherham', didn't need to as he defeated Young Socialists' candidate Peter Rotherham by 1040 votes to 299. Ken Howell defeated another YSer, Russel Johnson, by 1007 votes to 281, and Don Carson beat Johnson by 911 votes to 327. The YS slogan 'Support the Socialist Alternative' turned out to mean Johnson or Johnson, and students didn't think it much of a choice. About 25% of students voted. The other six members of the 1974 executive were elected unopposed.

Although the last issue of Salient went to press before the election results were known, we took a guess at the results and fortunately we were vindicated. We mention this to provide an insight into newspaper production. In the past newspapers have often blundered in predicting the mood of the people. The most famous case being the 1948 American Presidential Elections. Journalists in the United States and abroad confidently predicted that Dewey would thrash President Harry Truman at the polls. Because of deadlines, some papers even set in huge headline type announcements of Dewey's election victory, and then had to turn round the next day to report that Truman had won.

The percentage of students who voted in this year's election was down about 10% on last year's poll. This cannot be just dismissed as the result of students apathy, or explained by the Young Socialists' claims about a 'stifling atmosphere' on campus "where there is no room for the existence of dissenting views". Peter Wilson pointed to one reason in an interview with Salient. "I think it's getting to the stage now", he said, "when it's becoming very difficult for students to take part in extracurricular activities, and at the same time maintain their work output at the level that is now required of them". Even the most conservative university administrators, like Pro-Chancellor K.B. O'Brien, have stated recently that because of increased work loads students are finding little or no time for other activitites.

We had hoped to report comments on the election by defeated Presidential candidate Rotherham, but after agreeing to talk to Salient last Sunday night, Rotherham failed to turn up at the appointed time. In his report of the elections in Socialist Action Rotherham brayed about the Young Socialists' successes at the polls. But he did not explain why the YS candidates did not improve on their performance in the June by-election. After the by-election the YS candidates claimed that "more and more students are becoming disgusted with the clique which runs this Students' Association". The results of the August elections and Rotherham's silence makes these words sound very hollow now.