Today is a sad day for democracy at the ANU: Cameron Wilson of Bounce! is running unopposed for 2014 President of the ANU Students’ Association.
Ticket registration closed on Tuesday and was released by ACT Elections at 2pm. Woroni can report that Bounce! candidates are also running unopposed for all executive positions except Education Officer; that is Vice President, General Secretary, Social Officer and Treasurer. All Bounce! candidates for College Representatives will also be unchallenged, except for College of Engineering and Computer Science.
As well as independents, there are two other tickets registered to contest Bounce! for General Representatives of ANUSA and National Union of Students delegates. These two tickets are Stand Up for Your Education and Strong Unions Need Women.
Subsequently, the only high-profile battleground in this year’s ANUSA Elections will be for Education Officer, challenged by Connor Drum (Independent), Tom Nock (Stand Up) and Laura Wey (Bounce!).
Surprisingly, Bullet Train for ANU, a joke ticket launched on Facebook running the Fat Controller from Thomas the Tank Engine for President, did not register an official ticket.
Maclaren Wall, a spokesperson of Bullet Train, stated that there had been “a considerable amount of pressure placed on us not to run by Bounce! ticket members and [Stand Up for Your Education]. They were scared! To the extent of pleading with us not to run.” Wall further explained, however, that “this had no influence on our decision not to run.”
Bullet Train will continue its Facebook campaign and will still seek to influence the student politics of the ANU.
“Bullet Train for ANU believes it can create change as an independent lobbying group, rather than a soulless political ticket.”
We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Woroni, Woroni Radio and Woroni TV are created, edited, published, printed and distributed. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge that the name Woroni was taken from the Wadi Wadi Nation without permission, and we are striving to do better for future reconciliation.