UU Council gets a new party; Vuur is once again the largest

UU students were quite loyal this year. This year's election results didn't differ much from last year's. The student parties Lijst Vuur and PvdUS remain the most voted for, while Rups and Student Coalition Utrecht (SCU) retain their single seats.

The new student party Academisch Belang Utrecht (ABU) secured a spot in the council and will get one seat. This comes at the expense of the far-right party Vrijmoedige Studentenpartij (VSP), from which ABU split. VSP is therefore no longer in the UU Council.

Winner
Lijst Vuur lost a seat but remains the largest student party in the council, with five of the twelve seats. Their lead candidate, Puk Donken, was the top vote-getter this year with 472 votes.

Partij van de Utrechtse Student (PvdUS) recovered after last year's loss, going from three to four seats. Voters have chosen to allow the student parties Rups and Student Coalition Utrecht (SCU), which entered the council for the first time this academic year, to remain. Both retained their seats.

New party in the council
Right-wing students failed to make gains in these University Council elections. ABU scored the seat that used to belong to VSP.

ABU was formed by former VSP members who severed ties with the party. VSP participated in these elections with other candidates, but without success.

Lively campaign
This year's election campaign was a lively one. An election debate was organised for the first time in years, and the student members of the council created a Vote Compass to help students make a choice. With six student parties in the running, voters were certainly not short of options this year.

However, these initiatives were not enough to motivate more students to go vote: the turnout remained low this year. Only 20.7 percent of UU students voted, a slight drop compared to last year, when 23.6 percent of the student body turned out.

Kandidaten van de PvdUS