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OUSU Elections: Live Blog!

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By Cherwell Politics

00.46: After a rollercoaster few days, the ride is finally over.

We’ve covered as much of this election as possible. We’ve been accused of ‘rimming OUSU’. But we never saw this result coming.

It remains to be seen what Louis will do with the Presidency, if he chooses to accept it, but it’s an historic year to be a member of OUSU and we’re very glad to have been part of it.

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00.29: A few final tweets as the result of this year’s OUSU election sinks in…

00.12: Steph Cherrill has reported that Trup’s victory parade is making its way ever closer to the Cherwell offices (!!!).

To quote the Health and Safety Act: Back injuries are the greatest single cause of absenteeism from the workplace, often caused by manual handling activities, eg the lifting and carrying of loads.

Be careful, guys.

00.05: Here’s our video of the moment that Louis J Trup discovered that he had won the OUSU Presidency, captured live in Brasenose bar.

23.30: Here are a lot of tweets. Oxford seems to be divided into the jubilant and the bemused, but, for once, everyone’s talking about OUSU.

23.10: Everyone is having their say on the result of the election and we’ll try and make a post of the most interesting thoughts. While we’re waiting, here’s a song that goes out to all the Labour backed candidates, who performed about as well as a Katy Perry acoustic set (*burn*).

22.40: Apologies for the downtime, Oxford’s two biggest news sources both experienced huge demand and our servers couldn’t handle it.

For those who have been living in a vacuum or St Hugh’s:

LOUIS J TRUP IS OUR NEW OUSU

PRESIDENT-ELECT!

21.01: Results:

President

Alex Bartram: 725

Jane Cahill: 975

LJ Trup: 1,685

Nathan Akehurst: 587

VP Access and Academic Affairs

James Blythe: 976

Rob Collins: 589

VP Charities and Communities

Angie Normandale: 560

Ruth Meredith: 1213

VP Graduates

Nick Dickinson: 114

Yasser Bhatti: 231

VP Welfare and Equal Opportunities

Andrew Rogers: 716

Chris Pike: 816

VP for Women

Anna Bradshaw: 576

Trish Stephenson: 260

20.50: Jack Matthews, fallen angel of OUSU, estimates the results will come through at about 9pm. Here are some more tweets in the meantime:

20.42: Still waiting on those goddam results. Here’s a selfie of Tom Rutland to try and cure you of any delayed-results-blues you might have:

20.30: Some photos from the Jane4Change camp and BNC Bar have emerged on Twitter:

What are the two calculators for?!

Busy in Balliol bar, but where’s LJ Trup?

The Presidents of Teddy Hall, Jesus and Brasenose squeeze together for an embarassing selfie.

20.24: News on Oxide suggests that the count will be delayed by approximately 5 minutes. Could that be due to a recount if the vote has been tight?

We’ll be posting the results of all the elections here on the live blog as soon as possible, so if you can’t tune in to Oxide then you’ll be able to get a proper breakdown here!

20.18: A tweet from inside the Jane4Chang(e) HQ in Queen’s shows a cardboard cut-out of someone who might be The King, or might be Elvis…

20.06: You can currently hear Tom Rutland and a couple of chaps from the OxStu (who desperately need to get closer to the microphones) on Oxide, before the results are announced at 20:30pm.

You can listen in here.

18.24: News from Camp Jange and the mood seems pretty positive, a message from Jane4Change agent Will Brown says:

‘Regardless of the result, proud of the campaign we’ve run, and having had the courage to make the argument for a building. After three long days of doorknocking, I’m too tired to say anything more articulate, and am just looking forward to a drink or two.’

18.15: Is Nathan Akehurst admitting defeat by posting this daring photo on the Reclaim OUSU Facebook page? We’ll find out at 20:30pm!

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That’s The OxStu’s choice for your student leader, btw.

18.12: After a day spent chasing stories, our man-on-the-ground Max Long, almost forgot to vote. Thank God he got his sprint on, and Vined it too!


18.03: Oh, shit!

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17.56: A few tweets from the Twittersphere before polls close:

17.32: A bold idea has emerged on Twitter, courtesy of Maeve Scullion (who is also the originator of the Cherwell ‘rimming OUSU’ mantra that we live our lives by).

17.26: Confusingly, a number of people seem to have just received emails informing them that there are only 6 hours left to vote. The reality is that there’s a mere 34 minutes remaining. 

Hopefully this won’t cause people to delay submitting their votes.

17.09: Our man-on-the-ground Max Long is back with this report from the High Street.


If you want to get in touch with your thoughts, reflections, ambitions, credit card numbers, analysis or confessions, tweet us @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection or email editor[@]cherwell.org!

17.06: One hour to go (or 54 minutes cos I was busy drinking a Fanta)!

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16.38: A follow up on Nathan Akehurst’s debut novel (not because of any absence of real news). We present the exclusive cover of Partage: A Portrait.

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16.14: If you were worried that we’re not taking our print day seriously, and prepping a wonderfully OUSU filled issue for you, then this Vine ought to allay your fears. 


15.22: We’ve just had word from Jane4Change’s lead agent Helena Dollimore that VP Access and Academic Affairs candidate James Blythe has suffered a serious ankle injury on the campaing trail.

Could this open the door for the enigmatic Rob Collins?

13.39: In our video debate this week Nathan Akehurst declared that, if he fails to secure the OUSU Presidency, he’s planning to “publish [his] first novel”. Here is an exclusive extract* from Akehurst’s debut novel, Partage: A Portrait.

…the voice at the end of the line was tainted by the faint whirr of privatised mobile phone services, to the point where Nathan could hardly hear him. He strained to listen closer: Would this reveal where the dead body was? Where had the caller stashed the rotting corpse of Capitalism? He had already searched far and wide, but his work had been stifled by his idiotic bosses Detective Carhil and DSI Batrom. Still, if his hunch was correct, this phonecall could lead him to the body and to sufficient DNA evidence to convict that most demonic of criminals, Lewis Troop. All he had to do was listen. Damn it, Nathan thinks, if only I could shake this goddam sinus cold…

*artist’s impression of a potential, albeit non-existant, exclusive extract.

13.18: Another video release from Oxford’s super-hack Louis J Trup.

Trup, a former Access Officer at the Oxford Union, has rapidly moved into the position of the bookie’s favourite.

13.00: Race to the online polling station to cash in your hard-won vote, time’s running out!

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12.10: It may seem like there’s something of a liberation going on in Oxford today, but Louis J Trup, we can reveal, was there in 1969 with Jimi Hendrix for the real liberation.

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11.37: With little over six hours of polling remaining, we’ve had a chat with current OUSU Supremo Tom Rutland, who offered us the following nugget:

“OUSU is no stranger to close elections, with one candidate for a VP position winning by around 10 votes 3 years ago, and 2 years ago the Presidential race was decided by 80 votes. With just over 6 hours of polling remaining, it’s all going down to the wire…”

DJT’s victory over David Railton two years ago certainly seems the closest mirror to this year’s election, given that it was a five-way split with a joke candidate. But who will play the role of our favourite mutton-chopped Aussie in this year’s race?

Time will tell…

11.22: Time for an update from our election analyst, the mysterious Carlos Tejon.

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10.20: Here are some tweets from through the night:

(The joke there is that we didn’t ask him…)

10.13: Overnight, the following picture of Nathan Akehurst emerged on Facebook.

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Spending in excess of £4 on cheese, including brie and camembert, does this show that Akehurst is out of touch with the average student?

Have your say by tweeting @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection, or emailing editor[@]cherwell.org!

09.50: It’s a beautiful morning in Oxford. The grey clouds have given way to sparkly blue skies and vigorous sunshine. And, in the midst of this, one man looms sunnier than the rest…

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09.44: Last night saw the news that Returning Officer Nick Cooper had joined the candidates of this gaffe-filled election by blundering with the nomination of Lauren McKarus, a visiting student.

McKarus told Cherwell: “I refused to withdraw my candidacy because I did not believe that I would be honouring the very reasons for which I ran if I backed down for not being considered a “real student” of Oxford and did not stand by my manifesto in that I want to represent ALL international students.”

You can read the full article here.

21/11, 09.38: Welcome to the final day of Cherwell’s coverage of the 2013 OUSU election. In the words of Jean-Claude Van Damme, we have a most epic of splits…

23.15: A final message from VP Charities and Communities candidate Ruth Meredith, before we turn in for bed.

Ruth was seen to be wearing a yellow scarf, which suggests she may be suffering from serious liver failure.

Check back in tomorrow for more updates from the final day of the election, and be sure to contact us on Twitter @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection!

19.41: An exclusive image from inside the den of back-stabbing and double-dealing that is PresCom. Magdalen President Millie Ross and Wadham President Anya Metzer are the embodiment of the selfie zeitgeist here. 

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If you’d like your selfie featured on the live blog in an inexplicably ornate frame, tweet it to @Cherwell_Online!

19.32: Breaking news from St Anne’s as a Reclaim OUSU poster is defaced to produce a slightly different message. Unconfirmed reports suggest this may be an eleventh hour change of direction for the campaign.

17.45: News of this tense and unsettling election (not to mention live blog) appears to have spread far beyond Oxford. The BBC is currently running the unlikely tale of LJ Trup as its top story!

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As ever, you can join the discussion by tweeting @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection, or emailing editor[@]cherwell.org!

17.00: Our mysterious election analyst Carlos Tejon is back to cast his eyes on the current state of play.

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16.28: In the first of – let’s hope – many election polls, we took to the streets to ask OUSU voters who they have, or will be, voting for. The results seem to suggest that we’re still an indecisive bunch, and put Cahill and Trup pretty much neck-and-neck.

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16.08: Our man-on-the-ground Max Long has reported back with a series of Vines about the mood around Oxford.




15.53: We’ve put together a little graph of the various Presidential candidates and their respective Facebook likes. Obviously, those numbers will be constantly changing over the next few hours but were correct at the point of graph-making.

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15.07: Conspiracy theorists here at Cherwell HQ have uncovered an amazing moment during Cherwell’s OUSU Presidential debate. At 6:54, YouTube’s automatically captioning service exposes the real Nathan Akehurst.

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14.32: The OxStu editors have come out and backed Nathan Akehurst: a bold move as it looks increasingly like he’s going to come last. But their deputy comment editor is obviously a popular figure up there in OUSU towers. You can read their endorsement here.

Who are you backing? Tweet @Cherwell_Online or #cherwellelection, or email us at editor[@]cherwell.org!

14.12: Dark horse joke/serious candidate Louis J Trup has released another video, this time seeing him reenact a scene from hit movie Braveheart. The political satire of this message is between 20 and 700 years old, depending on whether you’re a cinephile or a Gaelic freedom fighter.

13.01: Following yesterday’s Jane4Chang furore (which was totally not just a typo and entirely our fault…), a grainy photo has emerged showing Cahill with embattled meth-loving Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

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 Make of that what you will.

12.21: Our man-on-the-ground Max Long has reported back from what appears to be his own bedroom.


Max will be Vining his way across Oxford today, so try and get in front of his camera lens and grab your 6 seconds of fame.

12.00: If you think it’s all gone a bit quiet here at Cherwell Towers in terms of extended pieces of commentary on the election, then you’d be pleasantly mistaken. Former editor (and general Brasenose BNOC) Tom Beardsworth has written us a piece on Louis Trup.

“There is no knocking on doors. Trup doesn’t need to; his message, which oscillates between crazy and sensible, has effortlessly been pushed onto our facebook and twitter feeds.”

You can read the whole article here!

11.45: It was a beautiful sunrise over Oxford, but will it be a new dawn with Reclaim OUSU?

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11.02: It’s a foul day for door-knocking but they’re a relentless bunch. Here are the thoughts of former Cherwell bigwig, Lib Dem supporter and Prospect writer Robin McGhee:

I left in 2012 yet was unable to avoid the OUSU elections this year. The obligatory vile Labour hacks will triumph again, obviously. Please let’s just get it over with so they can go and run the country in 20 years’ time and we can have some peace. Anyway, congratulations on your liveblog, it’s good training for your Guardian work experience.

00.35: A final thought to entertain out captive audience before we head to the land where it’s just me, DJT and a bottle of wine.

A leaked text from one of this year’s candidates poses the following, terrifying, question:

Is Louis Trup the UKIP of this OUSU election?

For more analysis that might give you nightmares, check back in tomorrow and remember to get in touch via #cherwellelection, @Cherwell_Online or emailing editor[@]cherwell.org

20/11, 00.25: In a bold (and petty) move, The OxStu have also launched an election live blog. Consider it a tribute act; the real show is right here. Still, we’ll try and avoid things getting as bitter as Bartram/Cahill (*burrrrn*).

Here are some tweets to warm your late evening cockles:

17.27: Oxford Union President Parit Wacharasindhu has confirmed that he will not be endorsing a particular candidate, whilst also exclusively revealing that he is unable to vote due to an undisclosed “rustication” issue.

19/11, 15.34: In case you haven’t seen it already, here’s Cherwell election debate (hosted in Dimblebyesque fashion by our own Patrick Beardmore) where the candidates clash on a number of issues. Definitely worth watching as an introduction to some of the key points of this election.


YouTube link

Preamble: The 2013 OUSU elections looks set to be the closest race in recent history, as four viable candidates battle through polling days with the top job in sight.

Cherwell brings you its news, views and analysis throughout the period, put together by the same team who brough you The Great Storm: Live Blog! and various other hit live blogs.

If you want to have your say, tweet us @Cherwell_Online or use the hashtag #cherwellelection and we’ll publish the best of the bunch on here.

If you want your analysis, photos or hilarious one-liners to find a home on the live blog, then email us at editor[@]cherwell.org any time over the next three days.

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