MORE details have emerged of a controversial student union election which led to a death threat being made.

Police and Bournemouth University are still investigating the threat made via a social media platform in the aftermath of the latter's union's election, which took place in March this year.

The union, SUBU, has now disqualified two of the election winners, and redistributed the votes to their competitors after concerns were raised by students.

In a statement the union said: "In the union officer elections, two candidates, one from the position VP Education and one from VP Community were excluded as a result of the investigation into the breach of the election rules.

"The votes cast in these two respective positions were then redistributed using Alternative Voting (ATV) and we can now confirm that Ebony Harding was elected as VP Community while Alex Hancox was elected as VP Education."

While the full details of the circumstances of the online threat have not been disclosed, the union has issued a explanation of the process of its investigation into the election, stating "we feel that we owe you, the students, an honest and transparent explanation of everything that has happened".

According to the union, the electoral misconduct included overspending on campaign budgets and "acting inappropriately" during campaigning.

Three candidates were disqualified but appealed to the union's executive committee, which overturned the disqualification.

However, acting on advice from law firm Bates Wells Braithwaite, SUBU's board of trustees formed an independent panel to carry out a further set of hearings, which met on June 12.

Subsequently the disqualifications were overturned by the board.

SUBU's statement says: "The Trustee Board having sought legal advice on this matter, unanimously passed the resolutions to reinstate the disqualifications and are satisfied that the elections have been conducted fairly and properly in accordance with the Education Act 1994."

The election had the highest turn out in SUBU's history, with 3,416 votes cast for the 21 candidates for five senior officer positions.

"Our election this year was the most successful in terms of voter turnout and diversity, however there were many issues that occurred which challenged SUBU in new ways," the union said.

The university has said it is unable to comment further on the threat, which it described as "made by an individual in a private social media group", as a police investigation is under way.