Aiden Zeyang Wang was elected University of Adelaide Student Representative Council (SRC) President on March 28 – with the result still listed as provisional on the student union website – beating out two other candidates in a result which should have been called on September 1 last year.

The scheduled annual election for YouX (formerly the Adelaide University Union) Board and SRC was held between August 28 and September 1, 2023.

In this first ballot, El Hall of Left Action won the SRC President position with 53.3 per cent of the final preference count.

Left Action is affiliated with the national Socialist Alternative movement and campaigned on a platform of action for Palestine, transgender rights and climate justice.

On September 2, 2023, the university election tribunal received a complaint from 2023 SRC President Georgia Thomas of Unite, which is affiliated with the Labor Right. Thomas was the provisional runner-up for re-election.

Thomas alleged that a conduct complaint lodged with the Returning Officer by former student politician Oscar Ong on August 28 was improperly handled.

Ong had provided photographic evidence of Ell Hall and Leila Clendon campaigning in merchandise for the Victorian Socialists party – a party with a single representative on the Maribyrnong City Council.

YouX election rules state that “any federal and/or state political party campaign material(s)” can “never be Permitted Material” and results in “immediate disqualification”.

The Returning Officer instead issued a one-day campaigning ban which was served by Hall and Clendon on August 29.

But the tribunal ruled in Thomas’ favour on September 27, and disqualified Hall and Clendon.

Hall has disputed the ruling, and that it resulted in a recount deciding who would be president.

“The one-day campaign ban for wearing political material was adequate,” said Hall.

“The democratic will of an entire student body was overturned in one decision and somebody else was undemocratically put in.”

Kalesh Govender was also disqualified for wearing Victorian Socialists merchandise in her campaign photo.

The tribunal said there was “no question” that wearing merchandise from a major party in a campaign photo was against the rules.

The six positions provisionally won by Hall, Clendon and Govender went to a recount on September 28, and Thomas was elected SRC President.

On October 4, recount runner-up Cyrus Kelly of Transparency lodged a second complaint to the tribunal. Transparency has no political affiliation and campaigned for transparency in student governance.

Kelly alleged Thomas paid for the YouX membership of a candidate nominating under Unite. YouX membership is a requirement for nomination.

Kelly accused Thomas of “hav[ing] done something significantly worse than what [Hall] had done,” further suggesting “[she] opened up the door to reporting things to the tribunal”.

The alleged recipient of the membership requested anonymity and asked for the case to be dropped.

“I stand by my decision to file that report, but I completely understand why the person might disagree,” Kelly said.

Thomas provided evidence that she only paid for the candidate’s membership after the nomination process had begun.

The tribunal ruled the payment was a “gift” or “exertion of undue influence” and disqualified Thomas on October 16.

The SRC Presidential results were declared void because “half the candidates… have committed non-trivial breaches of the Rules,” according to the tribunal, and the by-election set for March 2024 was deemed a blank slate.

Hall and Kelly nominated to contest the position again, joined by elected General Secretary Aiden Zeyang Wang of Progress.

Students returned to the virtual polls, conducted via the YouX website, between March 25 and 28.

Only 1497 students of the approximately 23,000 eligible students voted in the recent poll – a decline from 2867 in the standard election last year.

“I had no idea there was so much going on,” said one student.

“I did not vote.”

Zeyang Wang won the by-election with 957 votes on a platform of student health and wellbeing and inclusion. Hall received 446 votes and Kelly received 68.