University student elections not a real election declares returning officer

"NUSA - the University of Newcastle Student's Association - are up to their old tricks," said David Williams, President of the University of Newcastle Liberal Club.

"Campaigning has begun today for this weeks student elections, and with it the same old rorts," David Williams said.

"The Liberal Club's candidate Kara Densby was left completely off the ballot paper for the Education Officer position," David Williams noted, "When we pointed this out, the returning officer allegedly re-drew the ballot at the last minute. By strange coincidence, our candidate was drawn at the bottom of the new ballot - where she just happened to be drawn in the other positions she is running for."

"Still, what can we expect from NUSA," David Williams said, "when the returning officer - Rachel Frecker - is a paid employee of NUSA and also a student, eligible to vote herself, in this weeks election."

"In fact," David Williams added, "the NUSA rules and regulations for the conduct of the election are very explicit that candidates are only permitted to hand out up to 500 copies of a policy statement and can only spend up to five dollars on adhesives - anything beyond these constraints are prohibited."

"Yet, what do we see from the candidates endorsed by the current NUSA executive except reams of electoral materials flowing forth with comments ranging from every issue other than education and the University, including endorsement for next weeks S11 riots in Melbourne."

"When we questioned the returning officer, Rachel Frecker, about this discrepancy between the NUSA constitution and what she has privately permitted a group of students to do, her reply was that it is not a real election," David Williams said.

"This weeks NUSA election is just another rort in a long sequence of rorts, with a clearly biased returning officer who believes the elections should not be taken seriously," said David Williams.

"Next years NUSA president will not have been elected through a democratic process, but merely through a NUSA decision with this weeks election being a trivial formality for them," David Williams said.