Edward Snowden a candidate for Glasgow Uni rector

WHISTLEBLOWER Edward Snowden has agreed to stand as a candidate in the election for Student Rector at Glasgow University, it has been revealed.

Edward Snowden, pictured in a videograb from October 2013, has agreed to stand for Glasgow University student rector. Picture: AP

Snowden, who revealed the levels of UK and US Government surveillance of all its citizens, is currently living in an undisclosed location in Russia, and continues to seek permanent asylum.

The University’s Edward Snowden for Rector campaign released a statement, describing Snowden’s candidacy as a ‘unique opportunity to show our gratitude to a brave whistleblower’, adding that a vote for the computer specialist would ‘express disgust and horror at the open discussion in US intelligence circles of assassinating someone who acted out of duty, devoid of mercenary motive with the sole aim of informing his fellow citizens of state criminality.’

The campaign, who described themselves as an ‘informal group of [Glasgow University] students’, contacted Snowden through ‘interlocutors’ from the University to Snowden in the Russian Federation.

They hailed his ‘spirit of daring and self-sacrifice’ before calling on the institution’s students, and ‘all student bodies committed to ending state intrusion into our private lives’ to declare their support for Snowden’s candidacy.

Snowden was voted The Guardian’s person of the year for 2013, racking up four times as many votes as any other candidate.

He was also named runner-up to Pope Francis as Time’s Person of the Year, and received the German ‘whistleblower prize’ in August 2013.