Election Fever: Education

There's four candidates running for the hot-seat soon to be vacated by Eamonn.

• Aoife Finnerty
• Emma Kerins
• David Ryan
• Huw Thomas

Aoife Finnerty:

WonderWoman, eh? Making a pretty bold statement there. Pretty comprehensive start, covering most of the basics (posters, minions, a bright and shiny theme). On the ground already, needs a greater presence however. Clearly playing on her policies and relevant experience to land herself the job. Nice to see them displayed on her poster.

All in all, a good start, and one she can easily build on. Will be interesting to see how she develops the WonderWoman theme.

Emma Kerins:

Wow. Even on the Monday, Emma seemed to have UL blanketed. Her army of supporters are everywhere, leaflets are being distributed all around, and there's stickers and t-shirts across the campus. Definitely going to be a campaign to reckon with. Unlike Aoife or David, she seems to be relying on the C&S vote rather than the Class Reps vote.

Her posters are interesting, difficult to tell if it's meant to be Emma in the photo. If you haven't met Emma, then this picture wouldn't help you recognise her. That's probably the biggest flaw in her campaign right now. Which says a lot really.

She has a really tight, interesting manifesto. If Emma isn't elected, expect to see the victorious candidate "adopt" some of these policies.

David James Collison Ryan:

Running as "The Voice of Experience", while criticising those that have gone before him is a bit of an interesting tactic. As someone so active in the actions of the office in the last two years, it seems a bit odd to suddenly rail against the system you were so key to. Should've spoken earlier, no?

Campaign is decent enough, nice compact manifesto. The statement "And I have a few ideas of my own" has raised questions of "Well, what are they, exactly?". Has a pretty good website with fairly good propoganda video. Quite boring posters though. Obviously hoping for the backing of his fellow Class Reps.

Needs to decide exactly what kind of candidate he wants to be fast, and get it out to the students ASAP.

Huw Thomas:

Another one who seems to have opted for a low-key start, with only a handful of A4 posters around (Although, only one of two people to have visited the Health Science building so far). Interesting, quite striking (literally) concept. Pretty eye-catching, but he needs something more.

Despite early reservations by some, his policies seem pretty sound, with only one seeming odd (Free Nightlink? Isn't that CSO? And already done?). Needs to get his policies out there.

Early clashes over being a nuisance to other campaign teams suggest he's yet to find his feet in this election, but still shows some hope.

AND THE WINNER IS?

This will probably be the closest of the four elections, with all four candidates standing a reasonable chance. At this point, it's looking as though Emma may end up taking it. However, this rests entirely on how the other three candidates do in ramping up their challenge before Thursday.