Breaking: Jiale Wayne Wang Disqualified from USU Board Election

Ellie Stephenson reports.

An appeal against Jiale Wayne Wang’s campaign suspension on the basis that it was too lenient has been successful, resulting in his disqualification from the 2020 USU Board Election. Wang, who breached section 8.10.1(I) of the Regulations by offering his faction his potential Board honorarium, initially received a four day suspension from the Returning Officer, James Hoare. However, the decision was appealed to the Electoral Arbiter, who ruled that Wang would be disqualified from the election. 

Wang’s offer of money, which occurred in March, caused widespread outrage when we broke the story on Tuesday. Leaked screenshots showed him messaging a Panda WeChat group: “Before next year’s RepsElect, I will forgo all my salary as a hidden fund for next year's election or activities. (please don't leak this to the outside as this does not comply with the regulation.)” 

According to section 8.13.7 of the Regulations, a decision made by the Electoral Arbiter is final. This means that Jiale Wang will be removed from the Election ballot and only nine candidates will remain for the election. This will undoubtedly change the dynamics of the election, reducing the number of international student candidates and the number of cis men in the race, as there is affirmative action which limits the number of successful male candidates to three. As a result, both Wang’s fellow international students and the male candidates will likely celebrate this decision. 

Disqualification of a candidate is allowed under section 8.11.6(iv) and 8.13.4 of the Regulations as a consequence for breaching the Regulations. Disqualification is rare, with punishments usually confined to campaign suspensions, however in 2014, Callum Forbes was disqualified for a number of breaches including distributing election material which was not authorised by a member of the USU, using a USU society (the Wine Society) to encourage members to vote for him and using a different printing company to Officeworks to produce his promotional coasters.