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Alumnus James Price elected Union President

James Price, who graduated Oxford in 2013, has been elected as Oxford Union President for Hilary Term 2021.

James Price, who graduated Oxford in 2013, has been elected as Oxford Union President for Hilary Term 2021. After Union members first voted to Re-Open nominations and a Second Election was hacked, the Union’s Standing Committee has accepted the results below as final.

Price was elected with 431 first preferences. Jeremy Rose Bararia was the runner-up with 375 first preferences. Joseph Mochhoury was eliminated first with 30 first preferences, and Amy Gregg was eliminated second with 226 first preferences.

Price graduated in 2013 with an MA in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History. He has since worked as a House of Lords Special Advisor and stood as a Conservative Party candidate in the 2019 General Election.

He has also worked as a policy analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a right-wing think tank. Price currently works full-time at Hanover Communications in London.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union’s requirement for candidates to live within a 25-mile radius of central Oxford were waived for this election.

Beatrice Barr, Oxford Union President for Michaelmas Term 2020, told Cherwell: “This is obviously an unprecedented result, to conclude an unprecedented election. I’m relieved that the Trinity Election is finally over, so we can get on with the real work.”

Price will be the first Oxford Union President to have graduated from the University before the beginning of his term.

Price said in his manifesto: “I am running because I think it’s funny, and also because I would be better than anyone else. I have already stood for Parliament, so won’t feel the need to act like most union hacks tiresomely do. I’ve handled real budgets and managed teams of actual grownups in multiple jobs in the real world.”

The Oxford Union’s Standing Committee had previously decided against a re-poll after the Second Election was hacked. Instead, the “unsullied” votes from the Second Poll were counted. This discounts 507 “block votes” that were sent from one of seven IP addresses and all ranked candidates in the same order.

Cherwell was told that members of the Standing Committee worried about the security and public relations concerns should a third poll be held.

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