Election results: Front remains largest student party, TiU International doubles number of seats

Election results: Front remains largest student party, TiU International doubles number of seats

Party Front may once again call itself the largest student party in the elections for the participation council. The gap with nearest rival SAM has narrowed, however. Remarkable is TiU International’s big jump among the employee parties, but the Independents took the win.

Front celebrates the victory. Image: Jack Tummers

After three days of campaigning on an often soaking wet campus, the preliminary results of the participation elections were announced last friday in the brand new Marga Klompé Building. The large lecture hall on the first floor was largely filled with students and staff anxiously awaiting the results.

For many years, Party Front’s green has been the best represented in the University Council. But next year, the green wall looks a little less massive and the blue of the Party SAM is more prominent. Nine seats can be divided between the two student parties and Front takes five of them. That means SAM follows with four seats.

A more balanced picture than last year, when Front won six seats and SAM had to settle for three. Members of both student parties, therefore, had reason to cheer in the Marga Klompé Building.

Landslide among employee parties

Where students get to vote annually, employees only get to go to the polls every two years. This year, they were able to participate in the voting, and it resulted in fireworks.

Party Independents loses two seats but remain the largest with five seats. And that means double the number of seats for TiU International, from two to four. Never before has the employee party for international employees been so well represented in the University Council.

The sweeping plans on internationalization from The Hague will no doubt have something to do with that.

Happy faces at Vrijspraak

Students also voted for School Councils. Most notable: the gain of Party Vrijspraak at Tilburg Law School. The party took one more seat than last year and, with five seats, kept competitor Active TLS (two seats) at a great distance. The win was met with frenzied cheers in the stands.

For the School of Economics, the division remain unchanged: five seats for Active TiSEM and two for ECCO. Regarding the neighbors, no major changes can be noted either.

Relief is visible at Party Vrijspraak. Image: Jack Tummers

Active TSB retains five seats at the Social School, where Stimulus must continue to settle for two seats. And at Humanities, Max de Ruiter has to do it single-handedly with his party EnDurante compared to Active TSHD with five seats.

At the School of Theology, there are fewer candidates than seats, so there are no elections. There, the Council is filled with Student Perspective (two seats) and two one-person parties.

Decline in turnout again

Maybe it’s because of the bad weather. But again this year, voter turnout among students for the University Council has dropped further to a paltry 27 percent (4,795 voters). Last year, the tally stood at 31 percent.

Employee turnout is also declining. This year, 45 percent (1,550 voters) visited the virtual voting booth, down from 49 percent two years ago.

Declining voter turnout has long been a concern. Outgoing University Council chair Rien Wijnhoven warned of this recently in an interview with Univers: ‘We are dealing with a declining awareness of the urgency of co-determination.’

Translated by Language Center, Riet Bettonviel

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