Voting closes in...
Elections are coming!
Edinburgh College Students’ Association is run by a team of elected student officers. They’re up for election each year, and that’s where you come in. All current Edinburgh College students are eligible to stand in the election and to vote using their student login. You can register your interest here and we will be holding drop-in sessions on Teams on Friday 23rd February at 2-3pm, and Tuesday 27th February at 12-1pm. Feel free to join us to ask any questions about the Elections process.
Why should I run?
EC Students' Association represents students and works to defend, extend and promote students’ rights. Each of the elected officers helps to build student voice, create communities, advise and advocate for students. Each has a remit they work on:
President focuses on education issues and student representation
Vice President Welfare works to ensure good student mental health and wellbeing
- Vice President Activities works towards building communities by setting up clubs and societies and running events
The elected officers begin their roles on 1st July and will remain in post for the full year, working 35 hours per week at £21,840 per year (additional pay award pending).
This is the best job you'll ever have. If you think it sounds like the job for you, submit your nomination here by Monday 4th March. If you'd like to see what previous elected officers have said about their experiences, click here.
Timeline
Nominations open - submit your nomination here
Wednesday 24th January
Nominations close
Monday 4th March at 4pm
Candidate briefing
Tuesday 5th March, 4-5pm
Voting opens
Monday 18th March at 11am
Voting closes
Thursday 21st March at 2pm
Results announced
Thursday 21st March at 4pm
If you have any questions or want to talk to us about running in the election, the staff team are impartial and will keep your ideas secret! You can contact the staff here.
How will the elections work?
There are two main phases to the election process.
Nominations
- Come up with the reasons why students should vote for you (your manifesto)
- Submit your nomination form
- Start to campaign
- Film your Candidate Interview with EC Students' Association
Voting
- Continue to campaign for students to vote for you
- Students vote for the candidates they want to be elected
- EC Students' Association will announce the results
As a candidate, you should encourage students to vote for you, however, students are permitted to cast their vote confidentially. Once nominations close, information about all candidates will be available on the EC Students' Association Election Hub. During voting week, EC Students' Association will share information about candidates online and on campus. Voting will be open for 4 days and students can vote on campus, or online from their own devices. Once the vote is closed, we will count the results and announce accordingly.
If you’d like to learn more about how the voting works, see below.
How does the voting work?
At EC Students' Association, like most student associations, voting is done in secret and we use a Single Transferable Vote for the elections. This means when you vote, you order the candidates for each position in the preference you would like them to win. We then count up all the votes and if someone doesn’t have over 50% of the vote in the first round, we remove the candidate with the least votes and recount after redistributing all the 2nd preferences to other candidates. This ensures that even if your candidate (1st choice) doesn’t get elected, students' votes will not be wasted.
We also have a R.O.N option which stands for Re-Open Nominations. This allows students the option to vote for this candidate if they don’t want to vote for any of the other candidates. This would need to get over 50% of the vote to trigger another election.
It can be a slightly confusing process to explain in words so if you still aren’t sure you can watch this video here that explains it a bit more visually:
How can I campaign?
You’ll need to make sure students know you are standing for election by telling them what you stand for. We’ve shared some ideas of how to do this below:
- Speak to students on campus – find them in areas such as the Granton Hub, Sighthill Atrium or Milton canteen
- Make your own social media page, post interesting content and invite students to like and follow, to build your audience
- Post on the EC Students' Association Discord to engage with lots of students
- Speak to your Class Rep
- We ask all candidates to take part in an interview, which will be recorded and shared with students. Make sure you're prepared!
We recommend that you limit your posting on College channels to two posts a week.
What will EC Students' Association do for election publicity?
- Online Election Hub with all manifestos, pictures and videos
- Social media promotion of elections (Discord/Instagram/Twitter/TikTok)
- Polling stations on campus
- Class shout-outs about Elections
- Moodle banner for elections
- College student newsletter
- College all-student text
- Promotion via our email newsletter
Election rules
Campaigns must be conducted fairly and with respect for the other candidates and the diverse student population. You are responsible for the behaviour of anyone campaigning on your behalf, so please make sure any campaign teams are aware of the rules. Treat people in the way you’d like to be treated. Slander, libel, sabotage, or any other form of malicious behaviour towards another candidate, on any platform, may result in you being disqualified from the election and your nomination will become void.
All candidates should adhere to:
- Edinburgh College Code of Conduct, regulations and policies (including but not limited to IT, Health and Safety, Positive Behaviour Anti-bullying & Harassment policy)
- The laws of Scotland
Helping each other out
Candidates are allowed to work together or by themselves during elections, it’s all about encouraging students to vote.
EC Students' Association has no say in elections and as such, EC Students' Association staff can’t show any preferential treatment for candidates. Please don’t ask our staff to publicly support your campaign (that includes inviting us to like your Election page).
Current Full Time Officers
Current Full-Time Officers are allowed to re-run if they haven’t yet served for two years, but they cannot campaign for themselves or anyone else while working for EC Students' Association. This means they will need to take time off of work in order to campaign. For example, if they are attending a Class Rep meeting, they can promote the elections in general, but cannot ask people to vote for them.
Once elections are over, you could be working with any one of the other candidates from the other positions and you will need to work as a team, regardless of who is elected.
Any questions?
If you have questions about the elections or any of the above email elections@ecsa.scot
Should you have any concerns about election conduct or you want to make a complaint, please email Al Wilson - Deputy Returning Officer on al@ecsa.scot