Amidst all the excitement of NUS debate, there were elections going on left, right and centre!Mere inches from the Conference floor doors lay crowds of eager campaigners, supporting candidates for National positions on the NEC. And one of these candidates was our very own VP Welfare - Sarah Bolt!
Sarah impressed us all last December when she announced that she would be taking her unique brand of Welfare national by running for the National Vice-President of Welfare. Naturally, we all dived in to aid her as best we could because we knew it wasn't going to be easy. Sarah was running against the current National Vice-President of Welfare, Ama Uzowuru, and incumbents rarely fail to get elected for a second term nationally.
Nevertheless, Sarah put up a great fight and took a quality selection of Exec candidates and Referendum Rangers to campaign alongside her. We all handed out free condoms, chlamydia tests (both male and female, although I think I mixed these up...) and the standard flyers attached to pegs!
We generated a lot of interest because it isn't often that an independent runs for a national position, with out any factional support. Sarah's two opponents, Ama and Hind Hassan, were back by the OIs and the far left respectively.
We voted after the speeches - and Sarah's speech was awesome: "Where is the Welfare?!"
Unfortunately, Sarah came in third. But as Andy Fernando commented: "When the NUS are letting go great talents such as Sarah Bolt and Kieran Norris, you know something is seriously wrong."
However, she still managed to get 195 votes out of approx 700 which is a massive achievement considering she had no factional support. It just goes to show, a true independent can challenge conventions and get noticed at a National level and no-one should ever hesitate before doing the same in the future.
Never mind, Bolt! I guess you'll just have to go to Law School and get a proper job instead!
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