Rules
Any breach of the Elections Rules could result in disciplinary action being taken against you by the Deputy Returning Officer (DRO). The DRO reserves the right to distribute sanctions that are deemed to be fair and equivalent to any breach of the Elections Rules.
General Rules
BCUSU aims to:
- Conduct all Elections fairly.
- Ensure all student members, whose principle relationship at BCU is not as a staff member, have the opportunity to participate fully in all aspects of the Election.
- Conduct Elections in a spirit of friendliness and cooperation.
Requirements
- All candidates must be eligible to stand in the elections and must agree to the Terms and Conditions.
- All candidates and their campaign teams must sign up to the Elections Rules.
- All candidates must attend a training session or meet the DRO following the close of nominations and before the voting period begins.
- All candidates are required to attend Question Time event/s hosted by BCUSU.
Conduct
- Campaigning may only begin after candidates have attended the training and agreed to the Elections Rules, and the campaigning period has opened.
- Candidates and their supporters may only alter, move or remove their own campaign materials.
- Candidates and their supporters must not communicate or interfere with voters in any way once they have begun to complete their ballot.
- Candidates must take reasonable steps to ensure that their supporters’ actions comply with the campaign rules at all times and must be able to demonstrate this in the event of a complaint against them.
- Candidates and their supporters may only use mailing lists where lawful to do so. In most cases, they require the consent of the student members on the list to use their details. Please see guidance on Reps and Student Groups Support document where this is outlined.
- Candidates are not allowed to run in a slate. A slate is defined as a group of candidates joining together whether via resources, campaign material or encouraging voters to vote for other candidates.
- Candidates and their supporters should not engage in behaviour that could be considered abusive or constitute a personal attack on a named individual.
- Candidates and their supporters should avoid behaviour that could be considered intimidation or harassment of an individual to vote in a particular way.
Budget and Promotional Material
- An equal amount of budget will be allocated to all candidates. The amount will be announced by the DRO during candidate training.
- No candidate may spend more on their campaign than the limit set by the DRO
- Items freely and readily available to all campaigners can be used by all candidates.
- Items that campaigners already own can be valued using a minimum price list available from the Activities and Representation Team. The DRO will value items not on this list within one working day of the request for an evaluation.
- BCU and BCUSU logos may not be used in candidate promotional materials to indicate sponsorship or support for any particular candidate(s), but can be used to show engagement during your time at BCU. BCUSU student group logos may, however, be used with permission in candidate promotional materials. Please see guidance on Reps and Student Groups Support document where this is outlined.
- Candidate promotional material must be signed off by the DRO prior to circulation.
These rules refer in part to Bye Law 11, which can be found in the BCUSU Document Library. They act as a supplement to general BCU and BCUSU rules and regulations.
Terms & Conditions
Only students who have opted in to be a member of BCUSU, are eligible to stand as an Executive Officer.
• The roles are full time jobs, so if you are still studying you will need to defer whilst you’re in post. You will not be able to study and hold the role at the same time.
• All EU/International applications will require a Visa to carry out the role. BCUSU will pay the cost of obtaining the required documents. For more information on Visas, see this page about Visas and Immigration on iCity or email: batch@bcu.ac.uk.
• If you are being sponsored for your degree you must check with the sponsor/country of origin sponsoring you that you can take up the role of Executive Officer.
By submitting your nomination you are confirming you are seeking to become a Trustee of BCUSU (by running and winning in the election) and are not disqualified from trusteeship.
A person is disqualified from being a Trustee if any of the following criteria applies:
• Unspent conviction for an offence involving dishonesty or deception
• Unspent conviction for specified terrorism offences
• Unspent conviction for a specified money laundering offence
• Unspent conviction for specified bribery offences
• Unspent conviction for the offence of contravening a Charity Commission Order or Direction
• Unspent conviction for offences of misconduct in public office, perjury, or perverting the course of justice
• Unspent convictions for aiding, attempting or abetting the above offences
• Being on the sex offenders register
• Unspent sanction for contempt of Court
• Disobeying a Commission Order
• Being a designated person (under specific antiterrorist legislation)
• Being a person who has been removed from a relevant office
• Director disqualification
• Insolvency
Please contact Tom.Clarke@bcu.ac.uk if you have any questions about this.