News

Forstenzer elected President

By Rosie Taylor & Kirsty McEwen
Published: 05/03/2010

Elections break record with 7,216 votes

Joshua Forstenzer has been elected as Sheffield’s next Union President despite complaints from other candidates about his campaign tactics.

Forstenzer had 354 votes deducted from his total after three separate Union societies sent out messages endorsing him on Facebook.

He was also penalised for breaking rules such as using a megaphone speaker on the Concourse to campaign and failing to submit expenses receipts.

The Union sought advice from the National Union of Students (NUS) who told them that other unions had disqualified candidates for breaching similar rules.

But the Returning Officers who supervised the elections decided not to disqualify Forstenzer.

Current Union President Paul Tobin is convinced that his mistakes were accidental.

He said: “I don’t think anyone deliberately tried to cheat and compared to previous years we’ve had very few complaints.

“Joshua made it clear to us that the mistakes were made accidently and he responded to our concerns immediately.”

Forstenzer blamed the problems on “vague” rules.

He said: “I’m disappointed that rules around elections are vague, difficult to understand and issued late.

“No doubt my campaign has made mistakes, but there has been a breakdown in communication over central issues.
“When we had made mistakes, we tried to rectify them as quickly as possible.

“It’s especially difficult as I am an international student and someone who’s not part of Union politics already.

“When I’m President I want to make election rules understandable to everyone from the get-go.”

Presidential candidate Dominic Sztyber felt that Forstenzer should have been disqualified.

“Not all of us lodged a complaint. I really like Josh, but considering he broke so many rules, I think he should be disqualified. But, saying that, I am glad he won,” he said.

But some of the President-elect’s rivals supported him.

Ben Woollard, who campaigned under the name iBen, was runner-up for the position of President with 1,965 votes compared with Forstenzer’s 2,043.

He said: “I think it was fair.Josh has been punished and he won despite it.

“He’ll be an amazing President.”

The third most successful candidate was Charlotte Tobin, who received 1,535 votes.

She declined to comment but Ben Cooper, a member of her campaign team, said: “It’s disappointing that someone feels the need to cheat to gain an advantage over their rivals, should these accusations be true.”

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