The shoe is finally on the other foot for new WUSA president-elect Chloe Rafferty.
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Rafferty was overwhelming elected president by voters in the Wollongong Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) elections last year.
But the University of Wollongong student was disqualified from the WUSA top job for in part campaigning in classrooms before and during the election period.
Fast forward 12 months and Rafferty’s opponent Mikayla Barnes (964) actually secured the most votes for president but missed out on the top job after her entire Yes for WUSA team was disqualified for the improper distribution of ‘How to Vote’ material
The Yes for WUSA group appealed this decision but it was dismissed by the WUSA Election Appeals Panel.
In its November 9 report, which the Mercury has seen, the panel also dismissed an appeal from the Activate group ticket.
This appeal contained 12 components, which the panel considered individually.
These included the Save Our Union (SOU) team holding bake stalls during campaigning and an allegation SOU candidate Isabelle Liddy made defamatory comments against an Activate candidate via Facebook.
The panel dismissed both appeals and concluded that the results of the 2018 WUSA General Elections, as provided by the Returning Officer to candidates on Monday, October 22, be upheld and declared.
As such, Chloe Rafferty is the new WUSA president. The Save Our Union group she leads has also secured 11 of the 16 WUSA spots.
The full WUSA team is:
- Chloe Rafferty (president)
- Madison Lord (general secretary)
- Joshua Bell (treasurer)
- Isabelle Liddy (education officer & assistant secretary)
- Alexander Hall (Tertangala co-ordinator)
- Isabelle Jones (women’s representative)
- Nicholas Ritchie (environment representative)
- Bilal Zafar Khan (international student representative)
- Kirrily Carrington (welfare co-ordinator)
- Luke Niforos (disabilities officer)
- Anica Sarmiento (ethno-cultural representative)
- Joshua Clarke (general representative 1)
- Imogen Draisma (general representative 2)
- Jordan Humphreys (general representative 3)
- Emerson Burke (general representative 4)
- Darcy Turner (general representative 5).