ANUSA Gen-Sec Dynasty: Day Launches Executive Ticket, Seeks EOIs

By Anthony Lotric & Eliza Croft

ANUSA election season has kicked off today, with General Secretary Lachy Day announcing a bid for President as part of a currently unnamed ticket. The ticket has only announced its Executive candidates, and is planning to use ANUSA’s Expression of Interest (EOI) form to help fill the other positions.

Presidential candidate Lachy Day is the current ANUSA General Secretary, and was a General Representative in 2017. This is the second year in a row that the General Secretary has run for President. The General Secretary traditionally has a significant role in the running of the election, such as by providing information to candidates and interpreting the Election Regulations within the ANUSA Constitution. However, at a Student Representative Council meeting in May, Day moved a motion to delegate the General Secretary’s election-related duties to other members of the ANUSA Executive. The motion passed with no debate.

Annabelle Nshuti is running for Vice President, having served as a General Representative since 2018. Current General Representative Taylor Heslington is running for General Secretary. Treasurer candidate Maddy Wang is the current Treasurer of the Unilodge Residents’ Committee and of ANU Vinnies. Skanda Panditharatne is the ticket’s candidate for Education Officer. Panditharatne was an Observer Editor in 2018 and is currently Treasurer for ANU Greens. Rounding out the Executive is Social Officer candidate Sophie Jagger, who is the current President of the Interhall Arts Committee. 

The ticket has not announced its name or policies, and has only announced its candidates for Executive positions. The candidates have said they are doing this to encourage people to fill out ANUSA’s EOI form, which the ticket plans to use to help fill the other positions. Day said in his Facebook post that the ticket will be “overtly favouring people who come to us, whether it be in person or through the EOI form, rather than shoulder tapping”. This technique of launching an unnamed ticket with only Executive candidates was used by Refresh ANUSA last year, which Day, Heslington and Nshuti all ran on.

Day has promised that the ticket “will be publishing the number of people…that weren’t shoulder tapped to prove this is more than just a marketing tactic”. “We are going to be taking risks, actively changing the way we run in this election, to prove to everyone that we are serious about the change we want to bring in this election,” he said.

Day’s ticket is the first to launch ahead of the elections in Week 5. This is late in comparison to recent years – in 2017, Shake Up! ANUSA launched on 3 July, and last year, Refresh ANUSA launched on 24 June. 

Skanda Panditharatne was an Observer News Editor in 2017 and 2018. He ceased all involvement with Observer in March 2019.

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