Representative Council elections
In the Representative Council elections, you can stand as a candidate yourself or vote for a candidate of your choice. The Representative Council elections are held annually in November. Nominations will begin on 11.9.2023. Advance voting starts 30.10.2023 and is on until 7.11.2023. The actual election day is 8.11.2023. Every member of the Student Union Kaakko is allowed to vote and/or stand as candidate. You are a member of the student union if you have a valid Kaakko student card or a mobile student card.
Kaakko, the Student Union of South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, organizes annual Representative Council elections. In these elections 20 representatives and 20 alternate members are chosen for to the student union’s Representative Council.
All members of the Student Union Kaakko are eligible to vote and run as candidates. You are a member of the student union if you have a valid Kaakko´s student card or mobile student card.
The next Representative Council elections will be held on November 8, 2023.
Schedule of the elections
- 11.9.2023 The candidate nomination process starts
- 8.10.2023 The candidate nomination process ends
- 9.10.2023 Candidates and election numbers will be announced
- 30.10.2023 Advance voting starts at 11.00 a.m.
- 8.11.2023 Official election day, voting starts at 8.00 and ends at 15.00
- 8.11.2023 Counting of votes
- 9.11.2023 Results will be published
Standing for election
The election season begins with a separate announcement at a specified time. The nomination process and the creation of candidate lists typically start around the transition between August and September, with the actual elections taking place in early November.
For a detailed election schedule, refer to the previous section.
Eligible candidates for nomination are Xamk students who have become members of Kaakko. You can become a candidate by filling out and submitting the candidate registration form.
Voting
The Advance voting period is from October 30, 2023, to November 7, 2023. The actual election day is on November 8, 2023.
The voting link will be sent to the email address you provided when joining the student union. For those who have joined the student union after 2020, the email will automatically be your school email (ending with edu.xamk.fi). If you cannot find the voting link in your email, please contact our member service specialist at sauli.sarjus@opiskelijakuntakaakko.fi.
You can get to know the candidates on the student union’s candidates page.
Electoral alliance / Electoral coalition /Nonaligned
Candidates belonging to an electoral alliance benefit from the votes of other candidates within the same electoral alliance. In contrast, individual candidates who do not belong to an electoral alliance (independents) must gather all the votes themselves. An electoral alliance candidate can be elected with a smaller personal vote count than an individual candidate who is not part of an electoral alliance (independent). Two (2) or more electoral alliances can form an electoral coalition, with the condition that the electoral coalition includes candidates up to a maximum of twice the number of seats to be elected.
Established electoral coalition
Established electoral alliance
Responsible for the Representative Council Group
According to the rules of the student union, electoral alliances must have one person to be responsible and deputy responsible of the representative council group. The electoral alliance elects the person responsible and the deputy responsible from its members, if the electoral alliance has not defined these by the time of the first meeting, the President of the Representative Council invites the persons who have received the largest number of personal votes to be the responsibles of the Representative Council group.
Duties of those responsible for the Representative Council Group
- The task of those responsible for the Representative Council group is to ensure that the representatives of their own electoral alliance participate in the Representative Council meeting. If a full member of the electoral alliance is unable to attend the meeting, he or she must notify the person in charge of the Representative Council group of this, who will ensure that the deputy is aware of the participation in the meeting.
- Make a discussion channel for your own electoral alliance, e.g. WhatsApp group, etc. It is a good idea for the electoral alliance to hold discussions before the meeting and during the meeting on what issues the electoral alliance wants to promote in the Representative Council.
- Have discussions with those in other representative council groups. In democratic decision-making, cooperation pays off, and those responsible should look for other electoral alliances that pursue the same issues as their own electoral alliance. Electoral alliances that have cooperated in a voting situation have a bigger chance of getting what they want through.
Representative Council meeting
The Representative Council meets at least three times during its term of office, for an organizing meeting, a spring meeting and an autumn meeting. In addition to the mandatory meetings, the Representative Council meets if the Representative Council so decides or the Board deems it necessary. Representative Council meetings will be held remotely in Teams and it’s also possible to attend at campuses.
The meetings of the Representative Council can be followed live, from your own computer.