BREAKING: Ruiqi (Rachel) Jia drops out of the USU Election

Emily Graetz reports.

Early Monday afternoon, Pulp received word that Ruiqi (Rachel) Jia had dropped out of the running for the USU board. This was confirmed by the official voting ballot which does not include Jia’s name. More shocking than her resignation is the fact that Jia has been running for board at all. She was undeniably the most reserved of the candidates and largely remained absent from campaigning. 

Jia had refused an interview with Honi Soit and was absent at last week’s Soapbox for unknown reasons. Her interview with Pulp was her only public appearance and indicated a lack of commitment to her own campaign. Jia’s policies were vague and limited in number. They included improving communication between club execs and the USU and elevating USyd’s souvenirs.

Several close sources suggested that Jia’s running for board was not of her own initiative but a result of Penta pressuring her to run. Penta, previously known as Panda, is the largest international student faction on campus. Pulp considers it curious that given their widespread influence and size they were not able to back a more committed candidate. 

With Jia gone, however, Penta may shift their backing to a different candidate which could be instrumental in the outcome of the election.

It comes after neither NLS (Labor left) or Unity (Labor right) were able to produce candidates, leaving the remaining field of 9 dominated by Switchroots, Liberals and Independents. 

At the time of publishing, Jia had not not responded to Pulp’s queries about her resignation. 

Voting opened today and closes 5.00pm May 21. Voting is exclusive to USU members, who will be sent an email to submit their vote. Read the full coverage of elections including in depth analysis and candidate interviews here.