FLARE wins SULS Election
Ellie Stephenson reports.
FLARE has won this year’s election for control of the Executive of the Sydney University Law Society (SULS) after concerns over voter eligibility delayed the release of the elections. The race was between three tickets, FLARE, SPLASH and Vibe and saw the candidates focus on issues of social justice and accessibility within the Society.
FLARE pulled ahead in an extremely close race, where Vibe and SPLASH were tied in second place. Whichever ticket was eliminated first, FLARE would win. A total of 962 votes were cast in the election, with FLARE receiving 332 votes (around 34.5% of first preferences) and both Vibe and SPLASH receiving 315 (32.7% of first preferences). Using a random number generation, Vibe was eliminated first, leading to a Round 2 Count result of 457 votes for Flare and 439 votes for SPLASH. Had SPLASH been eliminated instead, Flare would still have won.
The Electoral Officer, Calida Tang, also told Pulp that there were 23 contested votes, however they would not change the final result if taken into account.
FLARE, an experienced ticket led by Wendy Hu, who will be the 2021 SULS President, focused their platform on building a sense of community within SULS and expanding equity schemes. They also had a particularly strong vision for international student support. When asked about their three favourite policies, FLARE said they hoped to enhance SULS mentoring, improve online socials, and become a stronger advocate voice.
Voting was open Monday and Tuesday this week, with questions about the eligibility of first year students delaying the results until this morning, since manual verification of the results was required.