Politics has always been marred with controversy. Anywhere power goes corruption tries to follow. In a democratic educational institution like University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), aspiring student leaders sometimes go a long way in trading favours to get elected into office.
Many at times we hear money can’t buy power but then again can’t underestimate the role it plays in a campaign process. Concerning building a strong support base, candidates may promise political favours to people or groups on campus to contribute to his/her campaign to be elected.
Good campaign messages, strategies, policies are key factors that contribute to the success of politicians seeking the vote of people, whether on or off campus. Campaign messages normally contain ideas that a candidate wants to share with the voters on campus; to get those who agree with to support them in vying for a particular political portfolio. Normally the message is made up of talking points on policy issues. Every successful campaign usually requires a campaign manager to coordinate the campaign operation.
Being on campus for close to 3 years and following up closely on the previous yearly SRC general elections, the 2014, UMaT Students Representative Council (SRC) general elections has been the most keenly contested with very competent and able student leaders on campus.
All candidates had very strong support base backed with very good policies seeking power. It all began with the vetting of aspirants. Before the vetting result was released, some students petitioned the J.C. enquiring about a panel member’s “authenticity” which lead to a delay in the release of the vetting result. This is where the heat started and resulted in some level of tension.
Some aspirants vetted-out sided with other vetted-in aspirants to secure a solid and sweet victory. The SRC presidency was contested by 3 candidates, namely; Oteng Amponsah Enock, Alua Jonathan, and Alex Emmanuel Nti. Mr Oteng Amponsah Enock also known as the SHARP! Man with his running mate, Abdul Dawuda-Waris, won with 540 votes which represented 43.03% of the total vote cast.
I therefore would like to commend the good work of the SRC Electoral Commission for a very peaceful and incident free electoral process and also to acknowledge the outgone SRC administration for a very good work done and providing good grounds for the new administration.
I believe we all have on chance to prove ourselves and the ball being in our own court now, we must deliver beyond expectation for all and sundry on campus to enjoy their stay. We believe in serving the interest of students. We believe in hard work and we also believe in dedication.
Long live SRC. Long live UMaT.
