‘Students voted for a liar’ SU candidate SLAMS former President in extraordinary outburst

A former Students’ Union President is facing claims she lied her way to victory in the most recent batch of elections.

Issy Cooke, who was last year’s SU President, was chosen by students to be this year’s Women’s Officer in February’s vote.

But her rival for the part-time position, Nafisa Kiani, has launched an extraordinary attack on the student politics veteran, claiming “she would go to any extent to win even if it would involve telling lies”.

The allegations revolve around a meeting between the opposition candidates that Issy said took place shortly before the election but Nafisa has claimed never happened.

Issy, who will be staying on at City this year as a postgraduate student, caused controversy during election week when she backtracked on a claim that she would drop out of the race.

The then-leader of the Union said she would withdraw her candidacy if another student ran against her.

But when health sciences student Nafisa put her name into the hat for the role, Issy sent shockwaves through the university by refusing to pull out.

At the time she said: “I know I said I wouldn’t but I sat down with her and decided I’m in a better position to push things through because of experience and contacts I made this year.”

But Nafisa, who lost the contest by 103 to 20 votes, has refused to accept the comments and told The Square that Issy’s claims were “factually incorrect”.

The defeated candidate has claimed Issy never sat down for any such meeting and told her afterwards that she’d been unaware another candidate had even run for the Women’s Officer position.

She said: “She didn’t even initiate a conversation with me as she regarded myself as an opposition candidate.

“Unlike her I didn’t swipe any negative comments towards her as I am a woman of good morals and values and wouldn’t drop down to a low level just because I want to win as I believe in maintaining class and professionalism.

“After she won, I saw her at the School of Health Sciences ball and I congratulated her and she said she never knew that I was standing for the same position.

“I am sure I could have done the best job and in fact an even better job than Issy.

“It’s clear that Issy won in the elections because of the fact that she has been working at the university in previous years and because people are more familiar with her.

“It would be more fair if people voted for someone who doesn’t tell lies, who doesn’t hurl negative insults towards a candidate and who has good morals and values.

“As a woman, Issy should be empowering another woman and not competing against another woman just to win.”

Issy refused to comment when contacted by The Square.