The election saw OUSA’s largest voter turnout “in a generation.” 5,193 votes were cast, representing 25 per cent of OUSA members.
Other winners included Ryan Edgar in the Administrative Vice-President position, Jordan Taylor as Education Officer, Nali Lee as Welfare Officer, Hamish Barker as Campaigns Officer, and Henri Faulkner as Recreation Officer.
Nick Tenci, Kurt Purdon, Kamil Saifuddin and Brydie Ockwell won their respective positions of Finance Officer, Postgraduate Officer, International Officer, and Colleges Officer unopposed. The 2014 President of Te Roopu Maori, who sits on the OUSA Executive, will be Mariana Te Pou.
Sycamore-Smith succumbed to a bout of tears when her victory was confirmed, but perhaps emotions clouded her short-term memory when Critic enquired who she was most looking forward to working with in 2014. Erroneously believing that Campaigns Officer hopeful Jarred Griffiths had won his race, Sycamore-Smith said that she and Jarred “worked very closely on the campaign together, so I’m excited to work with him.”
Sycamore-Smith proved less enthusiastic about her campaign video, a reworking of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.” “I got more dislikes than likes, which is pretty cheeky … but I think it was good in the sense that I really put myself out there and showed everyone how much I really wanted to be the president of OUSA. Getting my face out of there is pretty important.”
Outgoing President Francisco Hernandez was expecting to make about $300 from the Sycamore-Smith iPredict stocks he owned, having “put a lot of eggs in this basket.”
With Gawn losing by such a significant margin, Hernandez felt that “we did see the limitations of the Scarfie vote. You can’t run on a double Scarfie ticket and expect to win anymore. You need a little bit more diversity on your ticket.”
Ryan Edgar, elected Administrative Vice-President by a 21.13 per cent margin over his closest rival Paul Hunt, was on Gawn’s Scarfie ticket, along with Barker, who won by a tiny 0.55 per cent margin over Griffiths.
Edgar certainly had mixed feelings over Sycamore-Smith’s win, initially only admitting, “I’m looking forward to working with Ruby. I’m looking forward to liking her again.” However, as the first celebratory drink started to process, he let out his true feelings. “I’ve always really liked Ruby … I really like her … Ruby is great … I know she’ll do a really good job.” We get it, Ryan. There might be future inter-OUSA relations.
2014 Welfare Officer Nali Lee was “already pissed” when Critic spoke to her. She felt that her campaign video, which featured her deep-throating a condom-clad banana, won her the election. She literally squealed at the thought of holding her position, and launched into an epic monologue when asked how she expected to celebrate.
“Dude, I’m fucking already pissed man! Dude. Can you not see my face? I’ve got the Asian blush on! Well, it is quarter to four right now [it was actually quarter to five], I’m going to keep drinking, I’m going to pass out at 4:30 [she had already missed her scheduled pass-out time], I’m going to wake myself up at 7:30 and I’m going to the OCOM ball to drink the $4 cocktails.”
The 2014 Executive will receive training from the current executive before taking control of the 124-year-old organisation from 1 January 2014.
Results:
