Despite the ANUSA election not beginning for another seven weeks, two tickets have announced a ‘soft launch’ of their executive candidates this week. 

The first, announced on Wednesday evening, is fronted by current ANUSA Vice-President Madhu Janagaraja who is running for President. Alongside her are Bella Hewitt running for Social Officer, Christian Flynn (Vice President), Meghan Malone (General Secretary), and current Women’s Officer Siang Jin Law (Treasurer candidate). As of yet the ticket is unnamed and it is unknown if the ticket is affiliated with any political party or faction.

The second ticket, announced this evening, is led by Ben Wicks also running for President. Wicks is currently a General Representative. On this ticket, current Disability Officer Zoe Ranganathan is campaigning for Vice-President, current GenRep Ben Yates for Gen-Sec, Stefan Thottunkal for Treasurer, Maddie Chia as Education Officer, and Maddy Watson as Social Officer. 

When approached for comment, Wicks noted that a name for this ticket is still being workshopped. Wicks further established that this ticket is unaffiliated with any party or faction, and is ‘proudly politically independent and welcomes all students from progressive or no political affiliations.’ However, both Ranganathan and Yates have affiliations with the National Labor Students NUS faction.

More information regarding these tickets, as well as further candidate nominations for the 2020 elections, will be released in the coming weeks. The ANUSA elections for the 2021 Student Representative Council will occur in Week 5, from the 24th to the 27th of August. It is not yet clear what effect the COVID-19 pandemic will have on the election.

Woroni has approached Madhu Janagaraja for comment.

UPDATE: Janagaraja said that her ticket was prioritising finding “qualified and diverse” candidates before creating a ticket name. The ticket is also politically unaffiliated, with none of the executive candidates having any political affiliations.