Student parties agree on electoral covenant

The student parties have reached an agreement on this year’s electoral covenant. Earlier, negotiations were halted because the parties could not agree. Under the leadership of Rien Wijnhoven, Chair of the University Council, the talks were resumed.

Previous negotiations failed on two issues. There was a lack of clarity about the digital nature of the election, and there were concerns about possible connections and agreements between parties involved at the university and School level.

The first point of discussion was resolved earlier with the final decision to hold this year’s elections and the election campaign entirely online. This decision was made in consultation with the Executive Board, responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the coronavirus measures at the university.

Free and fair elections

To address concerns about possible agreements between parties at the various levels of participation, Wijnhoven announced that the following passage was added to the covenant:

“Parties and their candidates agree that their election strategy and activities are aimed at bringing their own programs and candidates into the limelight. By doing so, parties wish to avoid making large-scale, structural use of contacts and/or resources that cannot be directly traced back to their own programs or candidates. The most important point is that there are free, fair, and secret elections.”

The exact scope of the electoral covenant will be the subject of a broader discussion later this year at the invitation of the Executive Board.

Attention fully on elections

The student parties let it be known that they regret the course of events surrounding the earlier cancellation of the covenant talks. They now want to fully focus their energy and attention on the elections.

Since 2016, the student parties have been drawing up an annual covenant to regulate election campaigns. This leads to discussions every year, but this year the disagreement ran so high that the talks were temporarily halted. With the agreement reached after all, this year’s elections and campaigns can continue as usual.

Translated by Language Center, Riet Bettonviel

_Advertentie.