The upcoming ANUSA elections will be held in Week 4 of this semester with online polls open from 13 to 16 August.

Nominations for candidates closed at 4pm on Thursday, 2 August. Three tickets have announced they are fielding candidates in the election; Refresh ANUSA, Reform ANUSA, and Ignite ANUSA.

Refresh is the only ticket to nominate a full slate of executive, College Representative and General Representative candidates. Barring the candidacy of independents, all Executive and College position outside of Education Officer will be uncontested.

This draws parallels to the 2013 ANUSA elections when Bounce ran unopposed for all executive and college positions except Education officer.

The first ticket to announce themselves was Refresh ANUSA. Headed by incumbent General Secretary, Eden Lim, Refresh claims that it will bring “experience and fresh faces together to create a dynamic ANUSA leadership team.”

Refresh are campaigning to return the university calendar to 13 week semesters. Candidate for Education Officer Tanika Sibal claims that 12 week semesters don’t provide students with “bang for their buck”. Asserting that students are “paying for two extra weeks”. Similarly, Sibal is aiming to reform first year camps to include students that start in semester two and to ensure that the information provided on these camps is available to all.

Refresh ANUSA’s nominations are as follows:

· Eden Lim, 2018 ANUSA General Secretary, for President

· Hannah Minns, 2018 Griffin Hall President, for Vice President and NUS Delegate

· Dashveen Jose, 2018 Fenner Treasurer, for Treasurer

· Lachy Day, 2018 ANUSA General Representative, for General Secretary and NUS Delegate

· Matthew Mottola, 2018 Queer* Department Officer, for Social Officer

· Tanika Sibal, 2018 Deputy Ethnocultural Officer, for Education Officer and NUS Delegate

· Alison Wong for College of Asia & the Pacific Representative

· Dominic Harvey-Taylor for College of Asia & the Pacific Representative

· Zinnia Bath for College of Arts and Social Sciences Representative

· Tian Xiao Shi for College of Arts and Social Sciences Representative

· Matilda Dowse for College of Engineering and Computer Science Representative

· Tyrus Caldeira for College of Engineering and Computer Science Representative

· Kunal Vankadara for College of Law Representative

· Stella Ajani for College of Law Representative

· Jacob McMullen for Joint Colleges of Science Representative

· Ruth Purcell for Joint Colleges of Science Representative

· Croft Sun for College of Business and Economics Representative and NUS Delegate

· Jordan Nicholaeff for College of Business and Economics Representative

· Ailsa Schreurs for General Representative

· Akshat Agarwal for General Representative

· Anabelle Nshuti for General Representative

· David Harvey for General Representative and NUS Delegate

· Henri Vickers for General Representative

· Isabella Keith for General Representative

· Jade Lin for General Representative

· Ji Woo Ahn for General Representative

· Jocelyn Abbott for General Representative

· Harsh Thakkar for General Representative

· Peter Sun for General Representative

· Taylor Heslington for General Representative

· Vegnesh Ganesan for General Representative

· Justine Ramsay for General Representative

The second ticket announced for the upcoming election was Reform ANUSA. Led by current General Representative Ashish Nagesh, Reform claims to advocate for “students across campus”.

Rebranded from Stand Apart for ANUSA from last year’s election, Reform’s agenda is centred around: disaffiliating from the National Union of Students (NUS), addressing the issue of parking on campus, more transparent SSAF funding, and increasing SRC meeting accessibility.

Nagesh believes that NUS is a “grossly mismanaged organisation”. He promises to “call on a university-wide referendum” on whether or not ANU should be affiliated with NUS.

Reform is not nominating any executive candidates: instead, their 12 candidates will contest NUS Delegate & General Representative positions.

These 12 candidates are:

· Ashish Nagesh, 2018 ANUSA General Representative, for NUS Delegate

· Christopher Atkins for NUS Delegate and General Representative

· Rishi Dhakshinamoorthy for NUS Delegate and General Representative

· Lachlan Ballard for NUS Delegate and General Representative

· Krishna Shukla for General Representative

· Cahill Di Donato for General Representative

· Drishti Dhir for General Representative

· Zayana Zakaria for General Representative

· Thomas Huang for General Representative

· Luca Hongguang for General Representative

· Connor Andreatidis for General Representative

· Robin Tu for General Representative

· Rohin Singh for General Representative

· Daniel Huang for General Representative

The third and final ticket announced was Ignite for ANUSA. Founded by Niall Cummins, Ignite’s philosophy is built on their belief that “student money” isn’t currently being spent effectively. They aim to fund “subsidised RSA and barista courses”, with the aim of assisting current ANU students to seek employment during their time at ANU.

Ignite is also campaigning on: lowering the weighting on university assessments and engaging with national bodies to raise the rate of Newstart. Their full campaign launch is scheduled for Tuesday the 7th of August.

Niall Cummins is Ignite’s only executive candidate and is running for Education Officer and NUS Delegate. Ignite has nominated 14 other General Representative candidates;

· Madeleine Lezon for General Representative and NUS Delegate

· Jaya Dadwal for General Representative and NUS Delegate

· Nick Pagonis for General Representative and NUS Delegate

· Francis Classens for General Representative and NUS Delegate

· James Eveille for General Representative

· Bentan Honeywood for General Representative

· Cat Yeong for General Representative

· Nathalie Rosales-Cheng for General Representative

· Eliza Barry for General Representative

· Sam Neave for General Representative

· Daniel Meharab for General Representative

· Niam Foxcroft for General Representative

· Yasmin Poole for General Representative

· Grace Sixsmith for General Representative

More independent tickets are expected to launch in the coming days.