Election Tribunal disqualifies Hall, Clendon and Govender from candidacy, and triggers student election recount

Words by Louise Jackson and Sebastian Andrew

The University of Adelaide Election Tribunal has disqualified Eleanor Hall, Leila Clendon and Kalesh Govender (all Left Action candidates) from their candidacy in the recent student elections.

In a complaint put forward by current SRC President Georgia Thomas (Unite), Hall and Clendon were disqualified for campaigning in Victorian Socialists political party merchandise. This breach was found during the campaign, but resulted in a one-day campaign ban rather than the immediate disqualification outlined in the YouX Election Rules. Govender was disqualified following additional complaint from Domin Joseph (Progress) for wearing Victorian Socialists merchandise in her candidate photo.

Left Action ‘believe that the tribunal is wrong in its ruling’ and that Unite and Progress candidates have ‘exploited a legal technicality’ and ‘squashed’ democratic results.

By order of the Tribunal, the positions of SRC President, SRC Environment Officer, SRC Postgraduate (Coursework) Officer, SRC Women’s Officer, SRC General Councillor and NUS Delegate were today recounted after the disqualification of Hall, Clendon and Govender.

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Written complaint was made to the Returning Officer on the first day of campaign week (Monday 28 August) by Oscar Ong (Progress). He suggested Hall and Clendon were in breach of Rule 25.2.18 of the YouX Rules Concerning the Conduct of Annual Elections, By-Elections and Referenda regarding non-permitted material:

The RO issued Hall and Clendon with a one-day campaign ban, which was served on Tuesday 29 August, for campaigning in merchandise printed by the Victorian Socialists party. The RO stated to the Tribunal that the Victorian Socialists party are registered with the Australian Electoral Commission but are not registered with the South Australian Electoral Commission and do not run candidates within South Australia.

They deemed Hall and Clendon in breach of Rule 25.2.18, but determined a one-day ban was an appropriate penalty.

Thomas’ complaint claims that the full spirit of the Rule – immediate disqualification – was not carried out in the RO’s decision. Thomas was the runner-up for the SRC President position won in the provisional election results by Hall.

In a joint response to the Tribunal, Hall and Clendon argued Election Rule 9.4 outlined a procedure of warnings for rule violations – only if violation continued is immediate disqualification appropriate. They characterised the one-day campaign ban as an appropriate warning.

Thomas argued that as Election Rule 25.2.18 (and 25.2.17) outlines a specific penalty for breaching the rule, Rule 9.4 is irrelevant to its interpretation.

The Tribunal did not find that Rule 9.4 and 25.2.18 contradicted each other. They ruled 25.2.18 was targeting the use of third-party political campaign material, with an explicit and separate penalty for violating this rule.

The Tribunal ruled that the correct penalty for Hall and Clendon was immediate disqualification from the election. They noted it was ‘not for the Tribunal to comment on the appropriateness of the Rule and its mandated penalty’.

Further complaint was made against candidate Kalesh Govender (Left Action) by Domin Joseph (Progress) during the existing Tribunal procedure, targeted at her campaign photo. Thomas says she was ‘unaware’ of the complaint against Govender. Joseph was runner-up to Govender for the position of SRC Environment Officer.

No complaint was made to this effect during the elections. Govender was found to be in breach for the same reasons Hall and Clendon were, despite arguing she was not given any opportunity to provide a new campaign photo and that clothes in the campaign photo did not constitute ‘campaign materials’. The Tribunal placed the responsibility for recognising the clothing in the photograph breached Rule 25.2.18 with Govender.

The Recount and Where StuPol Stands

The ensuing recount lost Left Action two NUS Delegates (Hall and Govender). Left Action previously dominated with 4 delegates, with Unite holding the remaining 3. Harrison White (Activate), and Rafael Aquino (Unite) gain positions in the recount. This leaves 4 Unite delegates, 2 Left Action and 1 Activate.

But the changes in SRC composition are far bigger.

In provisional election results, Left Action swept into power. They claimed the SRC President office and 11 Office-Bearing positions, scraping a bare 13/26 seat majority in the SRC. It was a bitter loss for the Unite/Progress coalition, who’d held the Council with a seemingly insurmountable majority, and a jubilant day for Left Action, surging from only 2 seats in 2023.

Left Action have now lost that majority, dropping from 13 to only 8 seats.

Lashhanth Dhevaraju and Domin Joseph retained Postgraduate Officer (Coursework) and Environment Officer for Progress. The recount still couldn’t help Unite hold Women’s Officer, though, with Valeria Caceres Galvez snatching the position for Grassroots.

The most heartbreaking loss has to be SRC President. Winning the presidency was the cherry-on-top of a fantastic night for Left Action. Formerly outgoing-President Georgia Thomas was easily re-elected after Hall’s exclusion.

The 8 General Councillor positions remained largely unchanged. Education Officer-elect Briana Symonds-Manne (Left Action) and Robin Wood (Activate) were elected and all other non-disqualified candidates retained their positions.

After the recount, SRC numbers are as follows:
PROGRESS – 9
UNITE – 4
ACTIVATE – 1
TRANSPARENCY – 1
GRASSROOTS – 2
LEFT ACTION – 8
VACANT – 1 

Although it’s tighter, this means the SRC essentially maintains its distribution status-quo. A Unite/Progress coalition would hold 13/26 seats (although one seat has long sat vacant so in effect it’s more accurate to say thirteen out of twenty-five). Left Action would still fall short of majority even if it managed to cobble together a coalition with Activate, Transparency, and Grassroots.

Casual vacancies are where things get really interesting. The election of Symonds-Manne (Left Action) to two positions creates a casual vacancy, as a representative cannot hold two positions on the SRC at once. Casual vacancies are filled by recommendation of the SRC Executive (the President, General Secretary, and 3 other members elected at the SRC’s first meeting), and are ratified by a full council vote. This power now likely returns to the Unite/Progress coalition, and should ensure they can achieve an absolute majority through filling Symonds-Manne’s vacancy.

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The Tribunal complaint function has been used to disqualify candidates in the past, but rarely does it appear to have been quite so effective in overturning the results of a student election.

Thomas maintains that Rule 25.2.18 ‘is legitimate in its intent to separate student elections from being overtly connected to state and federal political parties’ and that ‘Liberal, Labor or Greens material’ had been used ‘there would be no question of this being a breach of this rule’.

Left Action have stated ‘there is no suggestion that our candidates had any unfair advantage or that it impacted the results of the election in any way’.