Election Ethics Under Scrutiny: Allegation of ANUSA Poll Bribery

Written by Hannah Farrow, Nuria Olive and Ryan Bourke

As student engagement with student politics is reported to be at an all time low, screenshots of alleged bribery for a postgraduate College of Business and Economics (CBE) representative candidate from ‘Together For ANUSA’  have come to light. 

It is not confirmed that the individual making the transferrals of money is connected to Together for ANUSA. 

Screenshots of alleged individuals who endorse this Representative, including transferred funds in Chinese Yuan to members of a Kinloch WeChat group through ‘Red Packets’, were revealed. Approximately 409 people are in this group chat. 

Red Packets on WeChat are used to gift money to others, both privately and in group chats. The individual operating in the Kinloch WeChat used a group red envelope, which assigns an amount of money chosen by the sender to each receiver at random. 

There were roughly 34 accounts that had been transferred funds, according to the screenshots currently available.

Receipts were included within the transferring of money. One includes “Sent by Nuggets” with the description of “ANUSA Election”. This receipt was of 0.13 CNY (approximately 0.028 AUD).

The text message in support of the CBE rep candidate that was sent to the WeChat group has been translated from Chinese to English.

“Hello friends, ANUSA this week

Election has begun, my friend Sejal

Bilani ran for CBE postgraduate

coursework representative.

This position is designed to serve as our course

We speak out about various problems we encounter and improve our teaching environment. I hope CBE friends will support me more! every voting website

Yes: wwwvoteanusa.com Login

Then choose anusa elections- CBE

representative-postgraduate

You can see the name of coursework.

thanks for your support!” 

Numerous photos were sent in of alleged transferrals of money ranging from 0.16, 0.15, 0.04 CNY (Chinese Yuan) to individuals in the groupchat.  

Samuel Macrae posted the allegations to ANU Schmidposting- a popular Facebook page among ANU students. Macrae stated, “This makes a farce of student democracy”. 

While Macrae initially accused a “Together for ANUSA candidates” of being behind the alleged bribery, the post was later edited at 1:21pm, and now accuses an “individual from Kinloch Lodge,” of being behind the scheme. 

As at time of publication, there were roughly 27 comments discussing the contents of the post. 

One Facebook User stated 

“So shameful” 

Sarah Strange (standing for the current election for Welfare Officer under “Standing with Sarah – Sarah Strange for Welfare Officer) stated “there’s no allegations of involvement by anyone in the ticket exec or even anyone in the ticket. It’s prob bad judgment by one person.” 

Responding to the allegation in the posts comments, Together for ANUSA Presidential candidate Phoenix O’neil made the following comment;

“Together for ANUSA is aware of allegations made against members of the ticket. We reported the allegations to the Probity Officers and Returning Officer yesterday, and have since been assisting their investigation. We maintain that the alleged events did not occur with the knowledge or consent of any members of Together for ANUSA. We await the results of the investigation and a decision by the Returning Officer.”

Current ANUSA President Ben Yates commented on the post with a statement from the Returning Officer:

“The [above] allegations are under investigation by the probity team. There is no allegation that has been made that any candidates from any tickets were involved in the activity. No findings have been made by the Returning Officer team”.

The issue has been alleged online and has been reported to the ANUSA Probity Officers. The role of Probity Officers is to “have powers of investigation and inquiry for the purposes of: (a) determining whether any disclosures relating to campaign financing are complete and accurate in accordance with section 2.11; (b) responding to complaints made under these Regulations; and (c) ascertaining whether a breach of these Regulations has occurred”.

Candidates and/or members of their campaign team must cooperate with the Probity Officers in the exercise of their powers under section 2.11.5 of the ANUSA Constitution. 

Together for ANUSA and the current 2023 ANUSA Probity Officers were reached out to for comments regarding these allegations but did not provide statements in time for publication.  

Sejal Bijlani is the Together for ANUSA candidate who is running for the role of postgraduate CBE rep. Observer reiterates that there has not been reports that Biljani has any direct affiliation with the bribing.

Today is the second last day of voting for the 2023 ANUSA Election. 

Observer will continue to publish about the ANUSA Elections. All students, postgraduates included, can vote in the upcoming election. Polls opened at 9am on Monday September 25th (Monday Week 8) and close at 12pm on Thursday September 28th.

The link for online voting can be found here. 

*This article was amended to adjust the conversion rate between CNY to AUD

Graphics by Annisa Zatalini

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