The other major student party, DOPE, was initially quite invisible in the run-up to the elections (for example, the party was missing from the election debate). Nevertheless, the party wins 18 seats, the same number as last year, and grows from four to five in the university council. NovuUM retains four seats in that council, while the Lex-Motus list captures one as it did in 2024. The three new one-man parties (voxis - your voice, our responsibility, Reason and Transparency and Lijst voor Nederland) do not gain a single seat.
Sharp contrast
Overall, slightly more students than in 2024 made their way to the digital ballot box, at most councils around or slightly above 20 percent. Positive outlier is the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), where 31 percent of students made the effort (last time 18 percent). This contrasts sharply with the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE), where only 17 percent of students went to vote, a slight decrease compared to the previous election.
Then the support staff, which, unlike in 2023, could vote for two faculty councils (FSE and law) in addition to the university council. The LEAD OBP party retains its 2 U Council seats; the other 2 go to the Independent Support Staff list. Some 31 percent of OBPs voted for the U Council - down from 22 percent in 2023.
Extremely low turnout at FHML
Finally, the academic staff. There, turnout presents a mixed picture: growth at the U Council (to almost 31 percent) and FASoS (where no less than three-quarters of those eligible to vote went to the polls), for example. But a slight decline at FSE and an extremely low turnout at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life sciences (15 percent, there were no elections there in 2023). Perhaps a contributing factor was that only 1 list participated at both faculties, so there was little to choose from.
In any case, the scientific staff gave LEAD WP one more seat in the U-council (now 4). Fair 4 Academic Justice - the party of former council president Amanda Kluveld - did not participate this year and thus disappears from the council. The Party of the Academic Staff retains both its seats.
KAN "obviously disappointed"
The KAN Party is “obviously disappointed” with the outcome of the university elections, chair Thanh Pham tells Observant. She cannot say much yet about the reasons for the setback - the KAN board will be meeting on Thursday for an evaluation. “But the fact that we have less manpower than other parties certainly plays a role,” Pham thinks: parties like NovUM and DOPE, she says, campaigned more actively on social media, for example.
Is the future of her party in doubt then? KAN - Climate Action Network - is more than a party, the chair emphasizes: its constituent student organizations have been and remain active outside of university politics as well. However, they will be considering how to approach the elections more effectively.
All results of the university elections can be found here.