Victory, as expected, for Student Council at university elections

A group of excited student politicians gathered in the boardroom at the University of Copenhagen just past noon on 4 December.

The results of this year’s university elections were to be announced.

As many had predicted, it was the Student Council’s lead candidate, Jesper Gür, who got the place as the students’ new representative on the Board of the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) for the next two years. Here he will join his colleague Signe Berner, who has been in office for one year.

He was, of course, pleased when the University Post spoke to him shortly after the votes were announced.

»I think it’s a good election result for the entire UCPH. When we stand together, we are stronger, and I can’t wait to get started with the work,« says Jesper Gür.

The turnout is the highest in many years, so it is a sign that there is a healthier student democracy

Jesper Gür, lead candidate for the Student Council

The Student Council, including its supporting lists, got 4,380 votes, or 63 per cent of the total. Last year, they got 61.9 per cent of the vote.

»We have had many supporting lists on the ballot this year from the different faculties, and in this way we have also got closer to the students. It has been the right move, in that one of our goals has been to meet the students where they are,« says Jesper Gür, who says he is proud of the Student Council’s efforts in the election campaign.

This year, 19.2 per cent of students voted in the election for the Board seat, which is significantly more than last year when the turnout was 14 per cent. The increase in election turnout pleases the new board member:

»The turnout is the highest for many years, so it is a sign that there is a healthier student democracy, and we have reached more students. And it has been one of my main tasks to make student politics relevant. So we must continue to do so,« says Jesper Gür.

Conservative Students: Show us who you are

Second in the election was Conservative Students, which got 1,084 votes, 15.6 per cent of the vote. This is an increase of almost one percentage point over the 2023 result.

The result also means that Conservative Students outnumbered the social democrat-aligned Free Forum group.

»I think we’ve been really good at activating our volunteers. In addition, for the first time ever, we have been present at all faculties, and I think that has also made a huge difference. And then we have just been good this year at presenting ourselves to students who are in the middle or the centre-right of Danish politics, so that they know we are there and that they can vote for us,« says Josefine Paaske, who was the lead candidate for Conservative Students.

According to Conservative Students, the Student Council has a clear ideological stance, even though the Student Council claims the opposite. Conservative Students tried to inform the students about this during the election campaign, and according to Josefine Paaske it is a strategy that will be used even more next year.

»Student politics is political, so you have to have the courage to show that the Student Council is also political, and how they are political. We also agree with Free Forum that we all have to show who we really are,« says Josefine Paaske.

Stolen issues

One of the election’s biggest losers was Free Forum, which got 10.1 per cent of the vote with 750 votes. Last year, the social democrat-aligned list got 16.3 per cent of the vote.

We really do feel that we are fighting against an autocratic party in the form of the Student Council

Josefine Paaske, lead candidate for Conservative Students

»I think it should be seen in the light of a reasonably high turnout. It is positive that more people have voted, but this has meant a worse election for us. At the same time, there are more lists this year, and therefore also greater competition, and we have not been good enough at tapping into that,« says chairman of Free Forum, Felix Wohlert.

Free Forum has for many years fought for free menstrual products at UCPH. A key issue which was achieved in an agreement between the Student Council and management shortly before the university elections.

»I think we should have taken better ownership of this free pads and tampons issue. I think that was a great success for us last year,« says Felix Wohlert.

Possible future election coalition

According to both Josefine Paaske and Felix Wohlert, it is a real possibility that the Conservative Students and Free Forum enter into an electoral coalition for next year’s election, so they can become a genuine competitor to the Student Council.

»I promise you this is a bigger issue for us than previously. We really do feel that we are fighting against an autocratic party in the form of the Student Council. We are closer to the point where we think that if we are to turn student politics into something that includes more people, we will also have to coalesce around some kind of democratic front at some point,« says Josefine Paaske.

Felix Wohlert also sees it as a real possibility to enter into an electoral coalition between the two immediate competitors as early as next year.

»If there is a realistic alternative outside the Student Council with, say, Conservative Students and Free Forum, and we could agree on this, then this is something I could easily imagine,« says Felix Wohlert.