Following an investigation into this year’s ordinary member elections, the returning officer has obtained permission from College for ICU Council to co-opt the final ordinary member, should it choose to do so.

The last meeting of ICU Council faced some confusion as to who was actually a member, when it became apparent that some candidates, having been told during the first meeting that they had been elected, had not been informed of a recount that showed that they had not been elected, and so had not been in a position to take the opportunity to stand in the second round.

After investigating the matter, Returning Officer and ICU President Mustafa Arif reported to ICU’s Executive last night (Monday) that having gone through the transcript of the first Council meeting, those present were not told that the first count was only “provisional,” and that having gone through his email correspondence, it did not appear that the affected candidates had been informed of the recount. However, this did not change the result of either round, and he felt that a third round of campus-wide balloting would be undesirable at this stage.

One place remained on ICU Council when RON finished 9th in the second round: the Quota System means that normally this place would be reserved for a Postgraduate, since no postgraduate ordinary member has yet been elected. However, Arif obtained permission from the Chairman of the College Council to suspend the Union Regulations on this one occasion, so Council may co-opt the final member and has the option of ignoring the quota requirement.

The decision now rests with ICU Council as to whether they do indeed wish to co-opt the final member: Arif expressed the opinion that as 15 ordinary members had been elected by college-wide ballot, it would be inappropriate to fill the final place with the votes of whoever turns up to today’s Council meeting, and it would be more democratic for Council Members, already representative of a wider cross-section of the student body than would necessarily turn up to a meeting, to make the decision.

Whilst there are cases to be argued for Council to co-opt Mr Pearce, one of the candidates affected by the communication lapse following the first-round recount (the other having since been elected as Physical Sciences Research Representative, giving automatic council Membership), or indeed for Council to uphold the quota and elect a Postgraduate (at a meeting where the Executive report notes that postgraduates are currently under-represented), Arif emphasised that Council would be free to co-opt whoever it chose.

Therefore, any interested candidates are invited to attend the meeting at 7pm this evening (Tuesday) in the Union Dining Hall.