By-Election Candidate Information September 2025
Please make sure you read through all of these sections carefully to ensure that you understand the rules, the support available, and what your responsibilities are as a candidate.
- Elections Rules - make sure you and any of your campaign team have read and understand all of these rules
- Candidate Support
- FAQs - We will update answers to Frequently Asked Questions as we get more!
- Elections Terms and Conditions
When standing for election it is very important to understand all of the rules that ensure we have free and fair elections, and to keep yourself and everypone else safe.
Elections Principles and Rules 2025
- Students must be free to cast their vote without undue influence or pressure.
- Obey the law, union policies, and university policies.
- Keep everyone safe
- Treat other candidates with respect and honesty.
- Campaigning will start on the agreed upon day.
- To be confirmed as a candidate you must attend a candidate briefing, and upload a photo and a manifesto.
How it works:
To give you an idea of how this works there are some examples of how the principles are applied below:
Students must be free to cast their vote without undue influence or pressure.
Candidates may not stand and watch students when they vote as the student would be under pressure to vote for that particular candidate. Candidates may not touch any electronic devices belonging to voters while campaigning, as every device is a polling station. While you may offer students benefits such as inviting them to a watch party to help students remember to you and listen to you, any benefits offered to voters must not be contingent on voting for that candidate. You cannot offer students any rewards that they get after they have voted for you, as this would be deemed as undue influence.
Obey the law, union and university policies.
This means that you as a candidate and your campaign team, as always, must adhere to the law, University regulation (such as their behavioural code, health and safety regulations, equal opportunities procedure, harassment code, damage to university property, and use of email etc.) and Union policy (such as our safe spaces policy, Elections Regulations, and our online campaigning guide etc). Breach of these policies can lead to a disciplinary which could in turn affect your student status and your Union membership.
Keep everyone safe
All campaigning during this election must be safe for everyone involved. This means that you should not campaign face to face if you are suffering from a contagious illness for example, and that you should ensure campaign teams get breaks and look after themselves.
Treat others candidates with respect
This principle covers a lot of ground. For example: defacing other candidates’ publicity, making up stories about other candidates, or heckling other candidates are among the actions that would be considered a breach of this principle.
Campaigning will start on the agreed upon day.
Candidates may begin their campaign as soon as they are confirmed as a candidate.
To be confirmed as a candidate you must upload a photo and a manifesto, and confirmed that you understand the role you are running for.
Your status as a candidate will not be confirmed until you have uploaded a photo and a manifesto to the Students’ Union website, and confirmed that you understand the role you are running for.
Online Campaigning Rules and Guidance
Websites
- Campaign websites and blogs are acceptable for campaigning.
Emails
- You may collect and create your own mailing list for the purposes of the campaign.
- Such lists must not contain information gained from any third party (such as a departmental distribution list, Students’ Union society, a Students’ Union list, or a social media group other than a candidate’s specific campaign group).
- You may not send messages to a list created for any reason other than your campaign (e.g. a society membership list)
- Messages sent to such lists must not then be forwarded to any other list gathered for any other purpose than the campaign.
Social Media
- You are encouraged to allow a healthy debate over issues surrounding your candidacy. However, you are expected to remove any defamatory remarks or other posts which break elections rules and regulations as soon as possible. The elections committee may take action regarding posts which are defamatory or are deemed to break any other elections rules or regulations.
- Private messages sent in support of your candidacy to other Social Media users should abide by the rules and regulations of emails as described above.
- You and any supporters may use personal Social Media statuses to promote your candidacy, however you should not “tag” other individuals in these posts unless you have their explicit permission to do so.
- You may utilise your personal social media accounts and connections to campaign
Rules for designing social media posts
Social media posts must adhere to all campaigning rules, such as those about being respectful. You are unable to use the UWS logo on your designs as this would breach copywrite legislation, but you may use the Students’ Union Logo and other assets from the Students’ Union.You must ensure that you have the right to use any other images or videos you use as part of your campaign.
Consequences of breaking the elections rules
If you break the elections rules, you will be referred to the Deputy Returning Officer. If necessary an elections panel will be convened of students who are not known to you, and they will look at your case and decide on the consequences of you breaking the rules. These consequences may include being withdrawn from the election, confiscation of elections materials, or even being referred to further disciplinary proceedures if you are found to have broken the law or other university or union policies. If you have a complaint about another candidate please email elections@uwsunion.org.uk, clearly setting out which rule you feel has been broken, and any evidence you have to this effect.
Candidate Support
We are here to help you to campaign successfully for election. If you have any questions at any time you can email elections@uwsunion.org.uk.
Manifesto Support
We offer manifesto support and advice. As a former student president with lots of experience of working in Students' Unions, David is a great person to ask for advice! You can book a 15 minute session by e-mailing david.devlin@uws.ac.uk. You can also request feedback by email. If you book a session, please send your manifesto at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting. You can also watch this video we created for our elections in 2022 - the advice in it is all still very relevant!
Creating Graphics on Canva
Canva is a great tool to use to create graphics for social media, or for posters, flyers, banners, or anything else you might want to design! Here is a video introducing you to canva, but do ask questions at a drop in session or email us if you want to know more.
You are able to use our logos and a QR code to direct students to vote on your materials - just drop us an email to request these.
Frequently Asked Questions
We'll be updating these as the election goes on and we get more questions!
Can I continue my studies if I am elected? If you are elected to a part time volunteer position, such as a School Officer or PGR position, you can continue your studies as normal as these roles are part time.
How do I nominate myself? When elections are open you can simply log in to this election page and choose which position to nominate yourself for. Make sure you upload a manifesto to let students know what you stand for and why they should vote for you!
Can you post something for me on your social media page? Because of the number of candidates we are unable to share posts on request as we must be fair to all candidates. However, we will encourage students to vote, and promote the elections more broadly.
How do I get students to vote for me? Attend our support sessions for the longer answer to this question - but the short answer is talk to them! Make sure students know who you are, and what you will do for them if you are elected.
Still have questions? Email elections@uwsunion.org.uk, for more information!
Elections Terms and Conditions
By confirming your nomination you are confirmation that:
- You give the student Union consent to verify the information that you have provided us to identify you as a member of the student union and that you meet the progression requirements of the role (that you are able to progress or graduate).
- You study at a domestic campus in the UK.
- You agree that you must adhere to all of the policies and procedures of the Student Union, including policies passed by Student Council.
- You agree to adhere to all election regulations issued by the Returning Officer and Depute Returning Officers.
- You understand that failure to comply with these T&Cs, the election regulations, our constitution and bye-laws, the Code of Practice and the rulings of the returning officer and depute returning officers may lead to disciplinary action which could result in you being disqualified from the election.
- Before your candidacy can be confirmed for any position, you must send the Student Union details of your social media accounts – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc – in order for us to ensure that there have been no instances in your past that may bring the institution into disrepute.
If you are unsure about any of the information contained within this disclaimer, you should contact the Deputy Returning Officer David Devlin - David.Devlin@uws.ac.uk. If you have concerns about the Deputy Returning Officer you may contact the Returning Officer from NUS Scotland at - democracy@nus-scotland.org.uk