University Council elections: Vuur gets 7 seats, PvdUS gets 5
The results of this year's UU Council elections being announced in the Academy Building. Photo: DUB
Last week, students had between Monday and Wednesday to vote for the student members of the University Council. Only two parties — Lijst Vuur and PvdUS — were running, as the two others didn't manage to find enough candidates
In the end, Vuur obtained two seats more than PvdUS, going from five to seven seats in the council, while PvdUS is going from three to five. This means that the four seats currently occupied by UUinActie and Vrije Student are going to be distributed equally between the two remaining parties.
Leading names
Three students managed to win voters over. Amont them, the party leaders Lune de Rijck (Lijst Vuur) and Maud Duurkens (PvdUS), as to be expected. But the biggest vote puller was Ismaïl Sarti, number 3 on Vuur's list.
The Physics student received 282 votes. Currently a member of the council of the Faculty of Science, he probably got a lot of votes from students of that faculty and the Faculty of Medicine. One of Ismaïl's intentions as a member of the UU Council is to plead for more quiet rooms at the university.
Disastrous turnout
In total, 3,780 UU students voted in this year's elections, which corresponds to 11 percent of all students — significantly less than in previous years. In the last ten years, the lowest turnout registered was 18 percent and the highest one was 26.8 percent in 2018. But, recently, the turnout has been following a downward trend.
The elections for the faculty councils, which also took place last week, had an even worse scenario. In the Faculty of Humanities, only 15.2 percent of the students bothered to cast a vote; at Social Sciences, it was an astounding 6.5 percent; at Geosciences, 10.6 percent; the Faculty of Medicine had 9 percent; and the Faculty of Law had 9.5 percent.