Last year’s ASG presidential election shocked Northwestern.

“Are you joking?” said campaign manager Lauren Briggerman on election night when her candidate, Manu Bhardwaj, lost the presidential run-off.

Said Bhardwaj on election night: “What the election turned into was anti-ASG … they want Evil Dave, and they’ve got him.”

Such a dramatic outcome is unlikely to repeat itself in this year’s elections, say Associated Student Government leaders. Unlike last year’s highly competitive elections, when 12 candidates ran for the four Executive Board positions, fewer than 10 students have picked up election petitions in the ASG office.

Petitions for the upcoming election are due at 5 p.m. today, but it seems that the majority of the races fizzled before they even got off the starting block. Not all of the students who took petitions are expected to run.

An election with fewer candidates would prevent a repeat of last year’s split vote that allowed Evil Dave Sheldon — a perennial presidential candidate, self-proclaimed cult leader, wrestling fanatic and graduating McCormick senior — to win despite his imminent departure from NU.

Bhardwaj, then a Weinberg junior, lost the race after nearly doubling Sheldon’s total vote in the first election. Sheldon received 581 votes to Bhardwaj’s 1,082 but nine more than the next closest competitor.

Because Bhardwaj was 7 percent shy of the majority needed to win outright, he and Sheldon faced each other in a run-off two days later. In those two days, Sheldon mounted an entertaining campaign that mobilized the campus. He won with 1,605 votes to Bhardwaj’s 1,369.

Opinions of Sheldon’s success during his one month in office vary. Sheldon tried to restructure ASG, but couldn’t muster enough Senatorial support to realize what he later called his “pipe dream.”

After Sheldon graduated, ASG appointed Steve Spaulding president.

The Senate prevented a similar transition of power this year. Senators accepted a clause in the revised Election Guidelines that keeps students who will not be at NU for the full academic year from running.

Senators said the presidential appointment should not rest in their hands. They also reasoned that an officer could accomplish much more during a full term.

But other aspects of this year’s election are also different.

Of last year’s five presidential candidates, only one did not have ASG experience. At least one non-ASG challenger plans to come forth tonight, but it appears that only one ASG member will run this year.

While all the candidates in last year’s executive and academic vice president elections had ASG experience, only one ASG member has talked of running in both of these races.

The student services vice presidential race seems to be the only election involving two ASG members.

Although a divisive and disruptive race cost Bhardwaj the presidency in 1999, he said a similarly high-profile and competitive election may be just what is needed this year.

“What ASG needs is a really hotly contested election where people have different viewpoints on what ASG can do for students,” Bhardwaj said.

Surprise candidates might appear tonight at the press conference where the nominees are announced.

But the real question is: Will they wrestle?