SRC Election results not published

Dear fellow students,

A public call was made for submissions on whether the invalid election results should be released to the public. Those submissions were considered by myself - the appointed electoral officer, the impartial officer - Adv L Roberts SC, and the SRC Disciplinary Board - chaired by Mr Dominic Hodge and made up of entirely senior LLB students. All parties put their minds to the submissions, of which there were submissions for and against releasing the invalid results, and our recommendations are unanimously against the releasing those invalid results. This is because the previous elections failed to attain quorum, thereby invalidating any results obtained, and the student governance constitution states that an entirely new election must be held. It would be unadvisable to have the past invalid results influencing the new election's outcome, especially since new candidates that did not previously run in the invalid election may now opt to run and the election needs to be free and fair to all candidates running.

Some candidates demanded the results to be published so that they could gain an advantage in running their future campaigns and/or having an effect upon the next actual voting session in their personal advantage. With respect, those are unacceptable reasons to release those invalid results and are actually very good reasons to withhold those invalid results, since all candidates must be set on an equal footing. However, it is accepted that past candidates and the general student body have a valid interest in knowing what those invalid results were, so they will be published as soon as the new SRC is validly elected. The electoral office will not entertain any further submissions on this aspect, but the student media is welcome and encouraged to request those results once the new SRC is elected and we've had a finalised election.

Thank you and good luck again to all the candidates running.

Best regards,
George IB Kahn
SRC Vice President External
Extraordinary Electoral Officer - 2nd round