RUSU Elections 2017 – Connect Wins (Again)

By Gus McCubbing | @GusMcCubbing

Image sourced from RUSU website

Connect has picked up all the major positions in the 2017 RUSU elections in a whitewash over Left Action, the results of which were released last night.

Ella Gvildys polled 2,486 votes out of a total 3,410 to defeat Nahui Jimenez Ludekens and be elected as General Secretary.

Lily Xia was elected as Education Officer and Aditya Sharma was as elected Welfare Officer, both winning over their Left Action opponents with similarly dominant majorities.

Anwei Wang, Mayura Ashok, and Jedda Rocha Costa were elected as International Officer, Postgraduate Officer and Indigenous Officer respectively, all of which were uncontested.

Sadaf Hadi polled 924 out of a total 1,228 votes to be elected as Women’s Officer over Natalie Acreman, while Ray Adcock & Kelsie Miller were elected jointly as Queer Officers, Courtney De Wan as Activities Officer, and James Kerr-Nelson as Clubs and Societies Officer.

Alexander Jarvis was elected as Sustainability Officer, while Hafiuzllah Jan was elected as Vocational Education Officer – both uncontested.

Abena Dove, Sheldon Gait, Meghanadh Kethepalli, Amy Hui Jin Chua, and Shiona Raj were elected as General Representatives on the student council, with Alan Padgham (Connect) and Nahui Jimenez Ludekens (Left Action) narrowly missing out.

Umer Tahir, Sen Su, Lily Xia, Ella Gvildys, Aditya Sharma, James Kerr-Nelson of Connect and Athulya Jancy Benny of Left Action were all elected as Delegates to the National Union of Students (NUS).

There was an average of 9.3% informal votes across the board, notably higher than the rate of informal voting on the House of Representatives ballot papers in both 2016 (roughly 5%) and 2013 (5.9%).

For a full breakdown of the 2017 RUSU election results, click here.

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