Sabbatical Elections

It is impossible to provide a set of rules and regulations to cover every potential scenario that could happen during an election campaign. When investigating conduct, incidents or complaints, the Deputy Returning Officer and Returning Officer will make a judgement based on the following ethos: All candidates must conduct themselves in a ‘free and fair’ manner that reflects the values and policies of the Students’ Union and the regulations set out in the relevant University’s guidelines. If in doubt, we advise you to run your campaign ideas past the Deputy Returning Officer before you put them into action. The following rules and regulations are correct as of January 2024 and may be subject to change.

1. General

The elections will be overseen by the Returning Officer. The Returning Officer will delegate responsibility to the Deputy Returning Officer.

Both individuals are empowered to investigate any matters related to the election, infringement of election rules or complaints regarding candidate or campaign team conduct. If they find that there has been an infringement, they may:

• Warn the candidate that any future infringement will result in a campaigning ban or disqualification
• Issue a campaigning ban
• Disqualify the candidate

Names will appear on ballot papers as per the candidate’s University registration, unless a candidate specifies otherwise, and this is granted by the Deputy Returning Officer.

2. Elections Campaigning

Dates will be set and published for the start of campaigning. Upon nominating themselves as a candidate via the nomination form, all candidates will agree to the Elections rules and their campaign teams are also bound by these.

All candidates will be provided with briefing information by the Deputy Returning Officer and other relevant staff members. No campaigning, physical or online, can begin until the 26th February at 12pm. Any campaigning prior to this could lead to a candidate being removed from the election.

All candidates are expected to abide by the rules and laws of the area/campus they are campaigning on and seek approval from the relevant parties when required.

The Students’ Union will provide a number of physical ballot stations on campus during the voting period. An exclusion zone for campaigning around these will be made clear to all candidates.

Candidates will be able to upload a photo to the website that will be displayed on the ballot. Candidates will be able to respond to two key questions outlining their priority and ideas and skills for their time in office, a maximum of 200 words for the priority and 300 words for ideas and skills.

All activity undertaken by candidates during campaigning, including manifestos and accompanying promotional material should be in line with the Students’ Union’s values and Members’ Code of Conduct

Campaign materials (e.g., posters, banners, social media posts/graphics) must not include branding, brand assets or variance to a brand from any of the partnership institutions, including Falmouth University, The University of Exeter, FXPlus or the Students’ Union.

Permission should be obtained from the relevant University and/or department, before placing any posters/banners etc. around managed areas of the campuses. Candidates must ensure that all publicity (including stickers) are removed from all campus locations within 24 hours of voting closing.

Campaigning is strictly forbidden in the following areas:

• Any library
• Any active teaching space (unless permitted by the relevant academic)
• Email lists (i.e., mass email)

Candidates and members of their campaign team must allow voters the opportunity to cast their vote in private, and under no circumstances must votes be cast on a voter’s behalf.

Employees of the SU, the Universities and FXPlus, who are not students, should remain impartial at all times. This includes (but is not limited to), not sending out communications on behalf of individual candidates, not wearing any candidate campaign merchandise and not verbally endorsing individual candidates in taught sessions.

Societies, Clubs, SSLCs/SSLGs can vote to endorse candidates, and, if passed, may then use their communication streams to promote them.

3. Finances

The maximum amount of money for a campaign budget is £80, this is reimbursed by the Union on submission of full receipts.

Financial declaration forms (including all receipts) must be submitted to the Deputy Returning Officer by 9am on Thursday 29th February. Any queries will be investigated as required.

Candidates may not accept material sponsorship from any source to assist with their campaign that would not have been available to other candidates unless it is accounted for in their £80 budget.

4. Complaints

All complaints must be submitted within 24 hours of the alleged incident, by 12pm on Thursday 29th February 2024 at the latest, via an email to the returningofficer@thesu.org.uk and must include the following information:

• Name and contact details of person making complaint (anonymous complaints will not be considered)
• Name of person being complained about
• Details of incident (including time and date)
• Details of any witnesses
• Details of which rules have been broken
• Details of the action requested

All complaints will be investigated by the Deputy Returning Officer, who will consider the facts and make an appropriate decision. This ruling will be communicated to all parties involved and included in the annual Returning Officer’s Elections Report.

Any decisions made by the Deputy Returning Officer can be appealed via a written statement to the Returning Officer (but must include factual information as to why the original decision is considered unjust).

Any decisions made by the Returning Officer are final.

All complaints must be received within one hour of voting closing. Any complaints considered after this time will not be investigated as part of the elections process (although they may be considered under the disciplinary procedure outlined in the Students’ Union Constitution).

5. Additional information

• A student may only submit one valid online nomination and must be a full member of the Students’ Union to be eligible.
• All nominees for the President Falmouth role, must be a current student at Falmouth University.
• All nominees for the President Exeter role, must be a current student of the University of Exeter Cornwall Campuses.