University Council seat allocation error: seat shifts from PSP to Liberi

The student party Liberi Erasmi will ultimately occupy five instead of four seats on the new University Council. This comes at the expense of a seat of the Progressive Student Party (PSP), which is set to receive a single seat instead of two. The Central Election Office had used the wrong calculation method to calculate the residual seats and therefore amended its results.

Immediately following the results on 23 May, the candidates raised questions about the allocation of the seats. Liberi received 1524 votes – almost four times as many as the PSP (406) – and yet Liberi received only twice as many seats (four to two).

A week later, it emerged that the Central Election Office had used an outdated version of the electoral regulations, which calculated the number of residual seats in a different way. In a letter, the office reported that this could no longer be amended. “Once the Central Election Office has determined the outcome of the election, the Election Committee has no grounds to modify that decision.”

Rectification

The Central Election Office retracted that statement on Tuesday. “Having been assured by our legal advisers that the Central Election Office does indeed have the ability to amend the decision provided that the objection period has not expired (…), the Central Election Office is now using the opportunity to rectify the mistake made earlier in determining the outcome of the 2024 University Council elections.”

The amendment of the election results led to Linquendo van der Klooster of Liberi Erasmi being allocated a seat after all, at the expense of PSP candidate Malakye Outerbridge.