Calum MacInnes beat opposition James Ansell for the QM President position for next year, with a narrow victory of just 13 votes.
Overall turnout for the QM elections was 476 votes, around 12% of those who hold memberships to the Union. Thirteen of these votes were submitted online by absentee voters. MacInnes passed the quota needed to be elected by 3 votes, winning 235 votes overall.
Opposition candidate Ansell had remained the favourite in the run-up to the election, held Thursday 28th February, though MacInnes performed at the Presidential Debate better on the Wednesday before.
MacInnes was delighted with his victory, saying: “I think the hard work James and I put into the election campaign helped demonstrate the considerable potential the QMU has in the year ahead. I feel very privileged to have been elected and look forward to taking the opportunity to fulfil that potential.”
For the year ahead, MacInnes has promised to focus on making sure University management see the Union as an important part of campus and the student experience, in light of the £67k block grant being withheld at the start of the year.
MacInnes has promised renovation of the bar areas, a push to get advertising for in-house magazine QMunicate and to get more students into the Union over the next year.
Outgoing President Colum Fraser was pleased with the turnout received in the elections, stating he: “expected a lower turnout due to the frankly disappointing level of contest seen this year.”
Fraser continued: “The next couple of months will involve a lot of training by the current Executive, but we are looking forward to working with the incoming to see what we can achieve going forward. The current Executive will now be setting their sights on larger, more fundamental developments to the processes and structures within the Union in the next few months, projects that we hope the new Executive – and many in the future – can either continue or benefit from.”
Emma Jewson was elected into the position of Honorary Secretary, and Sean McFadden elected to Honorary Assistant Secretary.
