Students at Selwyn College have voted to reopen nominations (RON) in their JCR presidential election, instead of electing either of the two nominated candidates.

RON received 106 votes compared to 40 and 31 votes for the two candidates, Sam Hollis and Owen Cooper respectively. RON gained 59.9% of the vote, with both Hollis and Cooper receiving less than a quarter of the student vote each.

RON is an option in elections run by the Students’ Union, which allows students to vote for the election to be run again, potentially with a broader field of candidates.

The SU says that students should vote for RON if they do not think that any of the available candidates should be selected, or they would like to be able to select from a greater number of candidates. The original candidates are allowed to run again in the new ballot.

Sam Hollis stood on a platform of “progressive change” and “modernising communication and organisation”. His proposals included campaigning for free room bookings for university societies at Selwyn, opening a multi-faith prayer room and flash referendums on JCR issues.

Owen Cooper, who is also on the committee of the University’s Conservative association, campaigned on the promise to “Make Selwyn Great Again”. His proposals included ending student contributions to the JCR charities fund and introducing a queue jumping system for Selwynites at hall.

Multiple Selwyn students have suggested that the victory for RON was in part the result of information circulated on social media, particularly “Selfessions” – the anonymous Selwyn Facebook confessions page.

Sam Hutton, a second year student who supported Sam Hollis’ nomination for the presidency, said: “last year, JCR election political posts were banned… but the new admin for this year did no such thing. Quickly, jokes spread about how neither candidate was ideal and that we should simply vote RON instead.”

Hutton added that he did not understand the result of the vote and that he “can only imagine it was freshers having a laugh or a true desire to cause chaos”.

Another Selwyn student also noted the role that “Selfessions” played in the election. They said that “given the low turnout to the hustings in both physical and digital form, it suggests that Selfessions has greater control over the student body than the JCR itself.”

Turnout has fallen from 213 at the last Selwyn JCR presidential election to 177 this year. Last year, only five students voted to re-open nominations.

When campaigning for the election began last week, many Selfessions posts began to back RON as a “really attractive option” and an opportunity to “make your vote count”.

Although some students have been critical of the RON vote, other students have been more supportive of the result. One student told Varsity that RON is “an excellent feature that allows students to protest vote effectively against JCR president candidates: it is more democratic than a choice of two, and the second round of voting will allow for more students to take part as more students will be aware of the vote taking place”.

In the wake of the election result on Tuesday evening (01/11), users of Selfessions turned to humour in uncertain times with one student joking that they were preparing for Selwyn to become an absolute monarchy headed by senior tutor Mike Sewell and another student suggesting they would themselves run for president if their post received ten likes. Other posts were more serious, hoping to “keep Selfessions non-political this round”.

Nominations to become Selwyn JCR president have reopened and will close on Friday afternoon (04/11). Hustings will take place on Sunday afternoon (06/11) before voting closes again next Tuesday (08/11).