The OUSA election trail kicked off last week, with a lacklustre attendance at the Presidential debate, and a number of nominations that is laughably low, even by Otago’s usual poor standard.
This year there are only two candidates for the role of OUSA president: newcomer Dan Benson-Guiu, and incumbent king Logan Edgar. The third presidential nominee, first year student James Butler, dropped out of the race early last week, stating that he was “unable to run this year”.
At the time of print, campaigning was thin on the ground, bar a poster depicting Edgar beside Nelson Mandela, with the caption “only the best leaders lock themselves up”. Things were not that much better in the online realm, where the “Dan Benson-Guiu for President of OUSA” Facebook page has 52 likes, while Edgar’s Facebook page, which was originally established for the presidential elections in June, has 718 likes.
Around 50 showed up to the presidential debate last week to interrogate Benson-Guiu and Edgar. Benson-Guiu spoke of his commitment to communicating with students via better utilisation of OUSA’s media arms and weekly SGMs. He embraced the idea of OUSA becoming more politically active. Edgar, meanwhile, noted that although he “didn’t know shit 6 months ago”, he is now experienced, and attempted to win students over with his snappy pimp/1930s paper boy ensemble.
Both candidates refused to engage in backstabbing, and were actually fairly amicable towards each other- uncharacteristic for an OUSA debate. Benson-Guiu commented that Edgar had done a great job, while noting that he could do better himself. Edgar said that Benson-Guiu seemed a “nice enough guy”, although claimed that he seemed to be pushing a bit of a socialist agenda. Both seemed to love student allowances, and Edgar commented that he wouldn’t be able to get his usual “cracking marks” if he had to get a part time job.
The real highlights of the evening involved a question asking Benson-Guiu and Edgar to choose between puppies and kittens, to which both responded “puppies”. However Edgar added the caveat that he would kill his Rottweiler puppy at age two when it ceased to be cute.
Edgar’s attempt to bring Benson-Guiu down a peg by targeting his degree choice, “we need a president who is good at the business side of things, not just philosophy”, somewhat backfired when an audience member questioned whether he could adequately represent all students, regardless of their degree. Edgar cavalierly responded “Yeah, course I can”.
The other positions attracted a similarly low level of interest, with only ten people nominated to contest eight of the Exec positions. Notably, of the ten, only one is a woman. OUSA Secretary Donna Jones says the number of nominees is “very low…significantly lower than in previous years”. She wasn’t sure of the reason, but thought there was a possibility that it could be because of the publicity of VSM. In the election for the 2011 Exec, there were 22 nominations; for the 2010 Exec, 40 nominations; and for the 2008 Exec, there were 37 nominations.
The forum for the non-presidential candidates also attracted a less than impressive crowd of around 30. Five of the ten candidates were nominated by Logan Edgar, including Edgar’s younger brother Ryan. Another of Logan’s friends, Blake Luff, who donned a bright pink suit and fake tan for the occasion, is running for Recreation Portfolio Executive Officer.
Presidential candidates debate the numbers. Yes they were maths-debating.
