The ballot draw for this year’s SRC election has revealed two candidates for president and three tickets vying for the editorship of Honi Soit.
President
This year’s presidential candidates are, in ballot order, Isabella Brook (National Labor Students – NLS) and Georgia Mantle (Grassroots).
Brook is backed by Stand-Up (NLS and Student Unity – Labor Right) and Ignite (Liberals and independents), Mantle is backed by Unite (Grassroots and Sydney Labor Students) and Left Action (Socialist Alternative).
Honi
First on the ballot, channelling Labor’s 1972 federal election campaign (but presumably without concern for improving sewage in western Sydney), we have TIME for Honi.
As we have previously reported, this ticket is headed up by Surreal Sounds coordinators John Patrick Asimakis and Josh Koby Wooller. We can now reveal the remaining names. Joining Asimakis and Wooller will be former ‘STRIP for Honi’ member Bianca Farmakis, SLS member Michelle Picone, Honi reporter Cameron Gooley, Engineering Society president Nicolas Dai, member of the Dom Bondar ticket for the upcoming Sydney University Liberal Club executive election Shae McLaughlin, Harry Licence (who did a Sydney Fringe Comedy festival show with Wooller this year), MecoSoc secretary (as of the society’s AGM today…) Alana Callus and Isabella Wiggs.
TIME will be running on “bright yellow” and instead of having reportable managers will be “self-managed by the ticket” with a “close team of five to six associates” who will be coordinating the logistics.
Although throughout the entire process of putting together their team, TIME have been adamant that they are not a “college ticket”, the list of names on the ballot suggests otherwise: five have lived at college, and three do currently.
Next up is WET for Honi. We’ve already revealed most of this ticket: Nick Bonyhady, Ann Ding, Gillian Kayrooz, Justine Landis-Hanley, Aidan Molins, Siobhan Ryan, Michael Sun and Evie Woodforde. We can now reveal the final members of the team to be Honi reporters Jayce Carrano and Maani Truu. Honi reporter Tina Huang is also on the team, however – as you can only list ten names on the ballot – she will only be brought on as an 11th editor if they win the election.
WET are running on aqua (lol) and will be managed by USU Board Director Courtney Thompson and law student Jonty Katz.
Finally, we have a team after the Evangelical Union vote – SIN for Honi. As previously reported, the team consists of Aparna Balakumar, Swetha Das, Nina Dillon Britton, Daniel Ergas, Eden Faithfull, Kevin Lee and Jemima Wilson. Since last report they have added MeCo student and former ‘Shimmy on Board’ campaigner Jack Crossing, law student Bonan Xia and MUSE and SUDS’s Christie New. We previously reported that Queer Revue director Will Edwards was a member of this ticket, however his name will not appear on the ballot: he is on the team as a “comedy director” (read: 11th editor). They will be managed by Adam Ursino and Noah Vaz.
Not to be outdone by WET’s obscure colour choice, SIN is running on “lilac”. This will allow for Edwards and Ursino to wash their shirts with their Sam Kwon USU Board campaign shirts in one wash, like the efficient Labor workers they are.
If you want the stats, WET for Honi is the only ticket who have all written for Honi Soit and every ticket contains members of political factions (SLS and the Libs for TIME, Grassroots for WET and Grassroots for SIN).
https://twitter.com/lanesainty/status/765814560678752256
@naamanzhou @honi_soit wet and sin is just sex and evil put through a dodgy thesaurus
— sam langford (@_slangers) August 17, 2016
SRC Council
SRC promises a confluence of vaguely similar names (Unite, Ignite) and at least one colour kerfuffle.
Grassroots have discarded their traditional “Grassroots for SRC” branding, which has been run every year since 2011 (even during last year’s coalition with all three Labor factions). Honi understands this was a make-or-break request from coalition partner SLS.
Mantle told Honi that the group was “stronger together” and said they were “obviously the more left-wing coalition”, citing the presence of Liberals on the other side.
The Unite gang will be running on green to maintain some kind of consistency with the Grassroots brand, while Ignite will be running on white.
A colour clash is potentially brewing between Stand-Up and Left Action who are both laying claim to red. Any ruling on that will be delivered by the Returning Officer Paulene Graham.
As for Council, a total of 68 tickets have been registered, with high turnout from joke tickets. “Harambe for SRC”, “Halal Snack Pack”, “Pokemon Liberation Front” and “Quidditch for SRC” will be vying, among others for your poorly-informed vote / brief fleeting chuckle come September.
“Harambe” managed to snag third place on the ballot draw, which was topped by “Students for Palestine”.
The returning ‘Twins for Tickets” campaign was listed quite low. Complete ballots will be made available tomorrow.