Hung Vote: Controversial Election Motion Rejected after surprise appearance from USyd SRC President

The divisive proposal to move UNSW’s SRC elections to Flexi-Week has been rejected by the closest possible margin, with 12 members of the SRC voting against it, 12 voting in favour of it, and one abstention.

Submitted to the SRC last week, it recorded the highest turnout of votes of any SRC matter this year with 25; only 15-20 of the 27 officers are usually in attendance at SRC meetings.

Officers Paige Sedgwick and Cherish Kuehlmann, leading figures of the SRC’s two major factions, read from multiple prepared statements denouncing each other’s arguments as the extended debate progressed.

Sedgwick quickly clarified that our Flexi-Week are in fact considered academic days, and holding elections then would technically be allowed. But that did not stop her long-time rival and Education Officer Kuehlmann from labelling the proposal ‘inherently discriminatory’.

Seven speakers in favour of the motion and seven against it were allowed to state their case after SRC President Michael Rahme agreed to extend speaking time on the motion due to its contentiousness. Usually, only two are allowed for and two against.

While a number of councillors on all sides engaged in a heated debate, in which the council’s integrity was questioned several times, the highlight was the surprise appearance of Sydney University SRC President Harrison Brennan, who spoke in firm opposition to the proposal.

He reinforced the arguments to the negative that a Week 6 election would unfairly favour students living close to or on campus, discriminating against voters who are underrepresented on campus, are disabled, or who live far away, adding that such a move would ‘tank voter participation’. He also endorsed suggestions that the Unity/Revive faction was attempting to foster and capitalise on an uninformed voter base.

“It ties in with the argument about a ‘considered vote’,” he told Noise.

“When in-person during the week of voting, students … develop an informed vote, which online campaigning is not sufficient to achieving.”

Although most attendees joined the meeting remotely, Brennan had personally made the trip to the Kensington campus and was seen in the SRC meeting room with a cohort of Left Action/Socialist Alternative members, as well as Indigenous Officer and Revive-elect Brydie Zorz, who had outspokenly crossed the floor.

Brennan led the Grassroots ticket, politically situated in between Unity and SAlt, to a fifth consecutive victory in last year’s SRC elections at USyd.

The Left Action-run Environment and Education collectives published a victory statement yesterday calling the vote “a victory for accessibility, democracy and accountability”.

They had asked some of the moderate officers who had sided with them, including Indigenous Officer Brydie Zorz and Ethno-Cultural Officer Diya Sengupta, to sign their name to the post and publicly affirm their stance against the motion. Interestingly, this list included one of the two Disabilities Officers, Timothy To, but not the other.

An apparent attempt to circumvent regulations barring the public disclosure of who voted what, Left Action appear to be recording the names of those who had previously supported their causes for future reference.

This comes after some SAlt-affiliated councillors questioned the integrity of the SRC’s voting processes.

It was officially recorded as a 12-12 tie with one abstention after a period of more than 10 minutes where General Secretary Sedgwick was counting the votes, during which time a councillor could be heard shouting, “are people on your ticket being called right now?”

This means that it was Rahme who abstained from voting, as it is the President’s vote that normally splits ties.

“The way the UNSW SRC operates - purely online - is so disappointing,” Brennan told Noise, “And leads to potentially rigged votes.”

Disclaimer: Diya Sengupta is a co-coordinator of Noise but was not involved in the production of this article.