Election guidance
All Durham SU elections are run in accordance with the rules in Standing Order C here
This page provides guidance published on behalf of the Returning Officer to help support candidates, campaigners and voters to understand their roles in the elections.
If you are playing an active role in the election, such as being. a candidate or campaigner, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with this page as well as the rules linked above. You will also be offered training to help you take part in the election.
Please direct any questions about the elections to su.elections@durham.ac.uk
Nominations
Submitting a nomination
To submit a nomination you can use the following nomination forms:
- Winter elections nominations form (Deadline: midnight Sunday 9 February 2025)
You may nominate yourself and do not need to gather further expressions of support from other students.
Eligibility
Eligibility for each position is outlined below. All those running in an SU election must also be an enrolled Durham student at the time of the election.
For Part-Time Officer roles, they must also be a Durham student during the term of office.
| Role | Eligibility |
|---|---|
| Full-time Officers (Education, Community, President) and Student Trustees | All enrolled Durham students, subject to being able to serve as a Trustee |
| Faculty Presidents | All students enrolled on a course aligned to a particular Faculty of Durham University |
| International Students Officer | Non-UK fee paying students enrolled at Durham University |
| Liberation Officer | Any enrolled Durham student who self-identifies as a Person of Colour, Disabled student, LGBT+ student, Trans student, Working Class student or Woman as per the Durham SU Liberation Definition |
| Societies Officer | Full members of Durham SU’s student groups, and an enrolled Durham student |
| Postgraduate Research Students Officer | All postgraduate research students enrolled at Durham University |
| Welfare Officer | All welfare volunteers enrolled at Durham University |
| Sustainability Officer | All sustainability activists enrolled at Durham University |
All candidates in Full-time Officer and Trustee elections will be subject to an eligibility check to ensure no reason exists that prevents them from serving on the SU’s Board of Trustees, and to manage any interests which may conflict with the position.
International student candidates
International students are eligible to run for all positions, provided they meet the specific eligibility requirements of the role. For full-time Officers, there is specific information available on the Government website (please look under “Sabbatical Officer”). The University and SU will help provide guidance with your visa should you be elected. For part-time Officers, interested students should ensure that the requirements of the role, alongside any other part-time work, will not exceed the allowances for work in their current visa. Please email su.elections@durham.ac.uk for more detailed information.
Candidate publication
Candidates in the Winter Elections 2025 will be published via official SU channels w/c 17 February.
Candidates may tell students that they are running in the election at any point, but no nomination will be formally accepted until published on the authority of the Returning Officer.
Withdrawing a nomination
You can withdraw your nomination at any point. Send an email to the Returning Officer at su.elections@durham.ac.uk from your @durham.ac.uk address notifying us of your intention to withdraw.
If we receive your notice more than one full working day before the ballot opens, then we will remove your name from the ballot before voting begins and post a notice on the Durham SU website to inform voters of your decision.
If we receive your notice less than one full working day before the ballot opens, then we may not be able to remove your name from the ballot before voting starts. If this is the case, then we will declare the result of the election following the close of ballot. If you have won the election, then we will ask you again whether you wish to take up the position and, if you decide not to do so, we will recount the election without reopening nominations and rerunning the election.
Behaviour of candidates and campaign teams
Durham SU code of conduct and candidate behaviour
All participants in Durham SU elections must follow the Durham SU code of conduct. This includes candidates, campaigns teams, and voters. This document sets out a standard of behaviour that students have the right to expect from their peers when engaging in Durham SU activities.
All participants in the election must:
- Behave in a manner worthy of mutual respect and understanding.
- Respect the rights and dignity of other people and groups.
- Act lawfully, reasonably, and civilly.
- Promote Durham SU activity as open, inclusive, and supportive of all participants, in which no harmful or discriminatory behaviour is tolerated.
- Uphold the good reputation of Durham students, Durham student activity, and Durham SU.
Read the full code of conduct here.
Training
Durham SU will not put a candidate’s name on the ballot paper unless certain that you understand the election rules. We therefore strongly encourage you attend a campaign workshop, or arrange an alternative if unavailable.
Campaigning Expenses
Candidates must not spend more than the allocated budget for their role election.
In the Durham SU Winter Elections 2025, the budget for all full-time Student Officer candidates is £80. The budget for part-time Officer positions is £15.
No candidate is permitted to spend more than the allocated budget on their campaign. To ensure all candidates have equal access to campaigning, Durham SU will expense all campaign expenditure for each candidate, provided it is within the budget and used appropriately.
All receipts must be submitted by the close of ballot.
Candidates may not engage in behaviour that may be seen as “buying votes” or support. This includes paying for meals at which campaigning takes place, or offering donations to a charity in exchange for support.
Campaigning period
There is no official ‘start’ of campaigning in Durham SU’s elections. This means that you may tell students you are running in the election at any point. However, candidates will not be formally confirmed until they are published on Durham SU official channels.
We would also strongly advise candidates to pace your campaign, so that you maintain energy to study, take care of yourself, and campaign effectively until close of ballot.
Campaign promotion
Durham SU will promote all candidates fairly.
This may include activities like sharing candidates’ posts on social media, or publishing candidate profiles on the website. All candidates will be offered equal access to Durham SU promotion opportunities, but it is up to them if they decide to take these up.
Campaign teams
Candidates are advised to invite their campaigns teams to an SU-run campaigns workshop. This is because the candidate will be responsible for the actions of their campaigns team, including any rule breakages.
Only Durham SU members should be able to decide the election outcome. This means that non-Durham student campaigners are not allowed. For example, university staff members, university groups, or another charity or company. If such a person or organisation is seen to be campaigning, then their influence on the election will be reviewed and appropriate action taken.
Campaigning in non-SU spaces
Candidates are encouraged to get out and about, speaking to students about why they should vote for you.
Durham SU, however, is not responsible for elections regulations in other student organisations or spaces across campus. For example, the SU does not govern common rooms, nor do we have authority over university-run spaces.
Our advice to candidates is to ask permission should you wish to campaign in these spaces. For example, contact the relevant department staff member if you wish to put up a poster within a department, or speak to a Common Room President if you wish to do a shoutout in a JCR Meeting.
It is important to note that Durham SU expects that other student organisations and the University will respect the freedom of candidates to campaign in spaces that are open to all students.
A failure to follow the guidance provided by another organisation on campus would not result in a breach of Durham SU’s rules. However, we may refer serious matters to an appropriate body, if they are outside the Returning Officer’s remit. This could include Durham University, the Charity Commission, or the Durham SU Trustees.
Access to resources
Candidates and campaigns teams may not use any resource only held by virtue of an office held. For example, resources held due to being a student group president, university staff member, or current SU Officer.
For example, if you are a student group president, you could not campaign using an email address or social media profile that you have access to by virtue of that position.
For the avoidance of doubt, during campaigning, you can make students aware of positions you hold or have previously held, and you can speak to students in networks you have developed through one of those roles about your campaign.
Candidates should pay particular attention to using students’ data appropriately, and should not use any data they have access to for any purpose than the one it was collected for. This includes mailing lists. Durham SU will train candidates to keep in line with Durham SU’s data protection policy.
Posting on social media
Candidates often campaign digitally to improve their reach to students. Campaigning on social media is permitted, provided that the spaces used are freely accessible to all.
For example, you could make a post in a social media group that all Durham students can join, but you would not be expected to campaign in a social media group that is only open to members of a particular society.
It is the business of the owner of any social media groups to moderate that group. Though Durham SU has no power to require university groups, including College or Common Room groups, they are also asked to facilitate open access.
If a social media group only allowed a certain candidate to post in that group, that social media group would then be seen as part of the campaign for that candidate. The group and the campaign would then be subject to the elections rules and the candidate would be accountable for the conduct of this part of their campaign.
For example, any Durham student can be a member of a Facebook group called Durham Students Are Us, so candidates are allowed to post in that group.
The moderators of that group, however, are only approving posts from Candidate X.
This means the Facebook group is now a part of Candidate X’s campaign, and is subject to elections rules and regulations.
Similarly, though Durham SU does not have authority over posts from Y College JCR, if the College social media only promotes Candidate X, it would now be deemed to be part of Candidate X’s campaign and subject to elections rules and regulations.
A private Facebook group for Durham SU’s Orange Society is only a group for members of that society. This means it is not a space where candidates should campaign. As it is a Durham SU group, the owners of the group should only post materials promoting all candidates equally, unless they follow the endorsement procedure below.
It is always okay for groups – Durham SU or otherwise – to promote the elections in general. Candidates may wish to encourage groups to share Durham SU’s general voting messages, rather than their own campaign messages.
Endorsements
It is not expected that candidates spend time seeking endorsements, as the process for doing so is lengthy and not often completed in time for the election.
If a Durham SU student group wishes to endorse a candidate, however, they must follow the following process:
A secure electronic ballot must be circulated to all members of the student group with a campaign message from all candidates. There must be no ‘recommendation’ made by the Committee or Executive, or any person involved in running the student group.
This means that a Committee or Executive may not make an endorsement on their own authority on behalf of their student group. Student groups may not campaign for a particular candidate using any resources, including data or social media accounts, made available to them to conduct student group activity.
Durham SU student groups can always promote the election in general, providing equal coverage to each candidate for a position.
Endorsements made by non-SU student organisations should be made in line with the organisation’s own elections regulations, though Durham SU does not have the responsibility to enforce this.
Re-Open Nominations (RON)
Every SU election includes an option to ‘re-open nominations’ for a particular role.
Individual students can express a preference to re-open nominations without being part of an organised campaign. However, should there be evidence of an organised campaign to re-open nominations, this campaign will need to be registered and regulated to ensure a fair election.
An individual student can apply to be the head of a campaign to re-open nominations in a specific election by emailing su.elections@durham.ac.uk. The Returning Officer will usually take the first applicant, who will then be subject to election regulations as a candidate. The deadline for accepting a re-open nominations campaign in an election is 48 hours after the candidates have been announced officially by Durham SU.
The Returning Officer will be unable to confirm that any campaign to re-open nominations is fairly conducted unless it is registered and regulated, and can therefore be confirmed as acting within the elections rules and guidance. It is likely that any unregistered organised campaign will be judged to have been improperly conducted, and the Returning Officer may therefore decide that it is in the interests of a fair election to disqualify that candidate and transfer any votes cast to other candidates.
Durham SU will explain the implication of voting to re-open nominations (RON).
Voting
How are votes cast?
Voting takes place on Durham SU’s website.
Students can access the voting link here: https://www.durhamsu.com/vote
Please notify us at su.elections@durham.ac.uk of any voting issues in good time before the close of ballot.
Who can vote?
The electorates – who can stand and vote for a position – for all main Union elections are defined in this table:
| Role | Eligibility |
|---|---|
| Full-time Officers (Education, Community, President) and Student Trustees | All enrolled Durham students, subject to being able to serve as a Trustee |
| Faculty Presidents | All students enrolled on a course aligned to a particular Faculty of Durham University |
| International Students Officer | Non-UK fee paying students enrolled at Durham University |
| Liberation Officer | Any enrolled Durham student who self-identifies as a Person of Colour, Disabled student, LGBT+ student, Trans student, Working Class student or Woman as per the Durham SU Liberation Definition |
| Societies Officer | Full members of Durham SU’s student groups, and an enrolled Durham student |
| Postgraduate Research Students Officer | All postgraduate research students enrolled at Durham University |
| Welfare Officer | All welfare volunteers enrolled at Durham University |
| Sustainability Officer | All sustainability activists enrolled at Durham University |
How are votes counted?
Durham SU uses a single transferable vote system.
This video from Lincoln SU explains the process.
The count is conducted digitally using Durham SU’s online voting system.
How are votes declared?
The results will be announced on the Durham SU website. This will usually take place the day after voting closes, but all complaints must be resolved before the results can be declared.
Other policies and procedures
Candidates and campaigners should be aware that the following Durham SU policies also apply:
- Social media policy
- Data Protection and Information Security Policy
- Management of Interests Policy
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy
- Freedom of Speech: Code of Practice
Key elements of these policies will be drawn to candidates’ attention during training workshops.
Candidates may request reasonable adjustments during the elections process by emailing su.elections@durham.ac.uk
