USU 2020 Board Election Results Announced
The University of Sydney Union (USU) announced that Prudence Wilkins-Wheat, Vikki KaiLin Qin, Ruby Lotz, Belinda Thomas and Benjamin Hines have been elected as 2020 Board Directors. Nick Rigby, who was the highest unelected candidate, will serve as a director for one year as Oscar Bai’s replacement,
Prudence Wilkins-Wheat (Switch) was elected first with a primary vote of 1040, with almost one quarter of the vote and an unprecedented level of support for a Switch candidate. Vikki Qin was the only international student elected this year, with 614 primary votes, after Jiale Wang was disqualified last week and Ada Choi was excluded in count 4 with a primary vote of 343. This is a significant contrast to last year’s election, where three of the six successful candidates were international students. This disparity is plausibly a result of the challenges of COVID-19, which potentially has limited the international student voting pool.
NLS’ Ruby Lotz was elected third with 579 primary votes; despite the lack of a preference deal, preferences meant she beat Belinda Thomas (Unity) who received 612 primary votes. Ruby secured 796.542 total votes while Belinda received 758.252. Ben Hines, who ran as an independent but is a part of the Liberal party, beat fellow libdependent Nick Rigby for the final spot on the board, with 576 primary votes. He also received a large flow of preferences, ending with a total of 1076.816 votes.
Ada Choi (independent) was excluded after receiving 343 votes despite a large volume of likes and reads on Facebook and Wechat (albeit not matched by engagement). Amir Jabbari received a total of 176 votes and was excluded along with Eitan Harris who polled the lowest at 79 votes. Both Jabbari and Harris managed their own campaigns without factional support.
Jiale Wayne Wang was disqualified from the election after leaked WeChat messages revealed he offered to pay his USU Board stipend to campus faction Panda if elected. Teresa Li was also initially a candidate before dropping out early on in the race.
This year marked the first online election in USU history, with campaigns and voting taking place online. Despite a lack of face-to-face campaigning there was a strong turnout, with a total of 4536 votes. But voter turnout was still lower than last year’s election which saw a total of 6454 votes cast. Voting was open to all USU Ordinary and Life members from 9am Monday 18 May to 5pm today.
USU President Connor Wherrett said, “Congratulations to Prudence Wilkins-Wheat, Vikki Kailin Qin, Ruby Lotz, Belinda Thomas, Benjamin Hines and Nick Rigby for their election to the Board of Directors. I also congratulate other candidates for their efforts in this election.”
USU Acting CEO Jess Reed said, “I look forward to working with the incoming Board of Directors on the future strategic direction of the USU, including the recovery from COVID-19. Thank you for the Electoral Officer, Returning Officer and Electoral Arbiter for their work in this election.”
As expected, the election saw candidates taking to social media to get their message across, with many candidates embracing platforms such as TikTok and WeChat to reach voters.
