Sunniva Whittaker is UiA's next rector

That is the result after the first vote counting after the election ended on Monday at 14:00.

"I want to use this opportunity to congratulate Sunniva Whittaker on winning the election. It has been an exciting and good election between two good candidates," head of the Election Committee Anne Elizabeth Stie said.

Read more (in Norwegian):

The next rector for Agder [Khrono]

The next UiA rector [Fædrelandsvennen] 

In total, 2,388 of the university's employees and students cast their vote. The result after the first vote counting showed that Sunniva Whittaker received 68.37% of the votes after weighting, while Stephen Seiler received 29.59%. 

73 people - 2.05% - cast a blank vote. 

Read more about Sunniva Whittaker here!

Voter turnout same as in 2007 and 2011. 

Participation in the three constituencies eligible of voting was varied. 

In the academic staff constituency, 653 people cast their vote, a voter turnout of 73.04%. 

In the administrative staff constituency, 405 people cast their vote, a voter turnout of 77.00%. And in the student constituency, 1,330 people cast their vote, a voter turnout of 10.05%

In total, 2,388 of the university's 14,645 people who were eligible to vote in the election did so – 16.30% compared to 15.91% in 2007 and 18.23% in 2015.

"Voter turnout is slightly lower than at the last rector election in 2015, and more in line with the rector elections in 2007 and 2011. Nevertheless, it is nice to see that more students have cast their vote now than in 2007 and 2011," Stie said.

Rector election in 2007

At the rector election in 2007 when Torunn Lauvdal was elected for the first time, there was, just like this year, only one ballot. A second ballot was supposed to be held, but Lauvdal was only missing two votes from the academic staff to receive more than 50% of the total votes. Thus, the others withdrew their candidacies and the election was decided.

The votes casted were then – in percentage per constituency, this:

• Academic staff: 74.91%
• Administrative staff: 82.87%
• Students: 8.0%

In total, 15.91% of all who were eligible to vote cast their vote in 2007.

Midterm election in 2011

For the midterm election in 2011, when Torunn Lauvdal was elected as rector for her second period, the voter turnout was smaller among the staff but slightly higher among the students.

• Academic staff: 67.1%
• Administrative staff: 76.4%
• Students: 8.7%

Higher participation in 2015

In the last ballot of the 2015 rector election, when the current rector Frank Reichert was elected, the voter turnout for the university's staff and students was this:

• Academic staff: 71.5%
• Administrative staff: 80.2%
• Students: 12.4%

Weighted votes

In a rector election, one vote does not count as a full vote, but are weighted according to the following key:

• Academic staff: 0.56%
• Administrative staff: 0.20% 
• Students: 0.24%