The University of Sydney Union (USU) has officially announced the results of this year’s Board elections. Isla Mowbray (Switch), Nicholas Comino (Libdependent), Cole Scott-Curwood (Engineers), Telita Goile (Switch), David Zhu (Libdependent), and Du Du (Independent) have been provisionally elected to serve as Directors.
It was an excellent night for the campus left, with their two candidates, Mowbray and Goile, both elected. The campus Liberals also found joy in tonight’s results, with Comino and Zhu getting up as well. Scott-Curwood is the first Engineering student elected to the Board in over a decade. Finally, Du, a candidate closely associated with Board Director Ben Hines, rounded out the elected candidates for the night.
Unfortunately, fan favourites Pablo Avaria-Jimenez and Joe Fidler were disappointed, while Yiman Jiang will not be bringing ‘Immense Love’ to the Board.
4820 USU members voted — the second-highest turnout in the last five years, after 2019’s 6454 votes.
Mowbray and Comino were both elected in the first count, breaking the 689-vote quota on first preferences. Scott-Curwood, Goile and Zhu were all elected in the fifth count, with Du defeating Jiang to take the final spot in the ninth count.
Tonight’s results leave the board somewhat split between the left and the right, with implications for the upcoming election of a new USU President. The election of Mowbray, Goile and Scott-Curwood (who is expected to side with the left in executive negotiations) gives left-wing candidates a slim majority among student directors. Prudence Wilkins-Wheat (Switchroots), Ruby Lotz (NLS), and Belinda Thomas (Unity) make up the rest of this potential grouping. Honi understands that Wilkins-Wheat, Thomas and Baby Ben Hines (Libdependent) are keen on the Presidency. With Senate-Appointed Directors becoming increasingly involved in proceedings, negotiations for President and other executive positions are sure to be fraught.