YUSU accused of bias over hustings
A CANDIDATE in the SU elections has expressed anger over what she felt was biased questioning from current sabbatical officers at an official hustings event.
At the ‘Question Time’ session held last Thursday in Derwent bar, YUSU President Rich Croker joined students in levelling questions at the candidates. One candidate has since claimed that some of his questions were directed at her, and represented an “unfair bias”. YUSU has prevented Nouse from revealing the identity of the candidate on the grounds of ‘electoral regulations’.
The candidate, who is also running for Labour Councillor in May, said “It was obvious to anyone watching that Croker asked at least one question directed at me, about the fact that I’m running in the council elections. I don’t know what effect it has on an election when the sabbs express their own preferences so openly.” Procedure requires that all questions from the floor “must be directed to all candidates running for the position,” and not to any specific individual.
When asked about the event, Croker said: “The question I asked was ‘do you have any potential commitments next year that could stop you doing your job properly?’, which I think is a valid question.” He claimed that his question could apply to candidates who wished to continue playing sport on Wednesday afternoons. A source close to the candidate echoed her allegations of bias, labelling the precedent “unhealthy.”
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