By Luke Smith
Students and societies from De Montfort University have come out in anger after accusations of cheating scandalised the Students’ Union (DSU) election results last night (Friday, March 16).
The annual DSU elections saw a range of candidates put themselves forward for the various full-time and part-time posts for the student-run organisation with voting taking place all last week.
The results were announced yesterday evening but there has been some controversy with accusations of cheating.
It has emerged that an email was sent out earlier in the week from the DSU which revealed there had been complaints that some students believed their DMU Personal Identification Number had been given to some prospective candidates, which had then been used by other candidates to register votes without the students’ permission.
The names or roles of those involved in the claims have not been revealed.
The email stated: “We have received a number of complaints from other candidates and sadly from students that have suggested their P Numbers have been obtained with consent to vote for one particular candidate, only to discover that votes had been cast in other positions that they have not agreed to. This is not permitted and constitutes a serious breach of the election regulations.”
This morning, there had not been an official response from either the DSU or DMU regarding the elections but on Friday night, after the election results were announced, the DSU tweeted: “If you have any questions or concerns regarding the results of the #PowerYourUnion elections, please email dsucomms@dmu.ac.uk. We will ensure each and every comment is investigated and the Deputy Returning Officer reviews and responds to you asap.”
Protests were being organised by students to take place today (Saturday, March 17) with a number of DMU societies also understood to be planning to support the protests, although others were urging for them not to go ahead.
Some of the DSU roles are classed as ‘full-time’ (paid) roles, with the president of the De Montfort Students’ Union collecting £19,000 a year, while other leading roles get £18,500 a year.
A protest video has been produced by the DMU Steppers society which can be found here.
DMU Steppers also released the following statement in relation to the issue, saying: “Many students were put in a position where they had voted for candidates both unknowingly and unwillingly, as a few candidates had voted on their behalf after getting them to login to their student accounts.”
The proposed protest falls on the same day as a DMU Open Day for prospective students. This prompted many societies, including DMU Acapella, to yesterday release the following statement: “Please consider the consequences of protesting tomorrow on a larger scale. There are people who have their hearts set on DMU who could be deterred because of a protest aimed at the SU.”
There has also been a petition set up on Change.org, calling for the election to be re-run. The petition has already been signing by over 200 students since it was set up after the election result was announced.
