Elections for SU full-time sabbatical roles are more competitive this year than for the past two years, but only one of the four part-time roles has a candidate.

Candidates for SU sabbatical positions have been released ahead of voting, which opens on Monday 26th February. The roles of President, and Access, Education and Participation Officer are more competitive than previous years.

However, only one out of the four part-time SU roles have a candidate. Ruth Shaw is currently running for Double Time Office, but the roles of Mature Student’s Officer, Families Officer and Part Time Student’s Officer do not have any candidates.

There are three students running for Undergraduate President, an increase from only two students nominating themselves in the past two election cycles. The current candidates are Sarah Anderson, Sam Hutton, and Hammad Chaudhry.

Sarah Anderson, former Fitzwilliam JCR President, has pledged to reform the exams mitigation panel and introduce lecture recordings across all degrees. Sam Hutton is a third year at Selwyn and is the only candidate to pledge to continue fighting for a highly anticipated reading week. Hammad Chaudry offers a notably slimmed down manifesto, promising to make NHS prescriptions free of charge for Cambridge students.

Three students are running for the position of Postgraduate President, making it the most competitive election for this position in the past four years. The current Postgraduate President, Vareesh Pratap, is standing for re-election on a platform of further support for part time students and building a database of affordable private housing.

One of the candidates for Postgraduate President, Sumouli Bhattacharjee, has had an 18-year long career as a consultant at IBM, Accenture and KPMG and is currently studying a masters in sustainable leadership. The final candidate, Rose Moffaatt, has failed to produce a manifesto.

One student, Chad Toerien, withdrew from the postgraduate presidential race yesterday morning (23/02), but did not wish to comment on his reasons.

Across the non-presidential positions there are two candidates for undergraduate Access, Education and Participation Officer: Sam Eastoe and Katie Clarke. Clarke, a third year geographer at Sidney, has pledged to introduce an SU Pantry for all students whilst Eastoe, Co-Chair of Cambridge University Labour Club, has pledged to fight for an increase in the University’s bursary rate.

Three candidates are running for postgraduate Access, Education and Participation Officer, again making this the most competitive race for the role in the past three years. Neela Maadhuree is an MPhil student in machine learning with four years of experience in the tech industry. Running against Maadhurree are Christian Cepeda and Cynthia Ugwu. Cepeda is running on the promise to create a directory of funding opportunities for postgraduate students whilst Ugwu has failed to provide a manifesto.

The roles of BME Officer, Women’s Officer, Disabled Students Officer and Welfare and Community Officer are all uncontested, meaning all candidates are highly likely assume their full time roles, receiving a £24,000 salary with no competition.