Annual Elections 2025 - Information for candidates

This page contains information relevant to candidates in this year’s UMSU elections.

UMSU engages an independent Returning Officer to administer the election, according to the Electoral Regulations which are set by UMSU in advance. In 2025, the Returning Officer is Stephen Luntz of Above Quota Elections, whose contact details are here. The Returning Officer is impartial, is independent of all candidates, the University, and UMSU itself, and is overseen by UMSU’s Electoral Tribunal.

Table of contents

How to nominate

The deadline for nominations was noon (Melbourne time), Friday 8th August 2025. No late nominations can be accepted.

The deadline for ticket registration was noon (Melbourne time), Friday 8th August 2025. Late registrations cannot be accepted.

Campaign rules

As a candidate, it’s your responsibility to understand the rules that apply to your participation in the election.

Campaigning in the election is allowed, and encouraged. However, you must follow the rules laid out in the Electoral Regulations.

The following summarises some important rules:

  • If you’re running as part of a ticket we presume the authorising officer for your ticket is entitled to make representations to us on your behalf, and we may copy them into communications with you. (If this is not the case you must inform us.)
    As a member of a ticket, you gain the advantage of the ticket’s pooled resources, but also take a measure of responsibility for the actions of any candidate on the ticket.
    Unless you ask us to, we will not include ticket members in our informational mailouts. We expect ticket organisers to propagate information to ticket members.
  • Campaign publicity must be “authorised” by a person who takes responsibility for it, and must be “registered”. Generally, you authorise the publicity (meaning you are responsible for ensuring its accuracy and agree to take responsibility for the outcome of a complaint made about it). The material is registered by sending us a copy (returningofficer@union.unimelb.edu.au). We will check it for obvious issues. If you are confident the material complies with the Regulations, you can assume it is registered once it has been sent to us.
    • If your material is a “how to vote” card, you must wait for us to reply to your request for registration.
    • All registration is provisional: even after the material is registered, a complaint can be made regarding it, and you or your ticket can face a penalty for the material.
  • You must display your student ID while campaigning. The easiest way to do this is by putting it in a lanyard. Limited lanyards are available from the Information Desk in Building 168 at Parkville.
  • Campaigning is prohibited in libraries and buildings with polling points. This includes wearing campaign T-shirts.
  • Campaign bans are a standard penalty that we apply for breaches of the regulations. If you are banned from campaigning, you cannot campaign in any way, including by handing out leaflets, wearing campaign paraphernalia, or posting on social media.
    • Whole ticket bans can be made for repeated or serious breaches of regulations. During the period of a whole ticket ban, every candidate on the ticket and campaigner for the ticket is banned.
    • Sometimes, a ticket or candidate’s campaign can be responsible for a breach of the regulations even if no individual can be identified as responsible (for example, if it is known a breach was made by an individual in a ticket’s T-shirt, even though that individual cannot be identified). In this case, we may ban random campaigners from the responsible ticket/campaign. These bans reflect the responsibility of the ticket/campaign for the actions of every member, and are not regarded as derogatory towards in the individually banned campaigner.
  • This list is not exhaustive. Rather than recapitulate the entire Electoral Regulations, which you can read, we have tried to summarise key rules and give practical advice on how we implement them.

Information session slides

We ran an information session on Tuesday 26 August.

Prospective candidates’ information session

We held a prospective candidates’ information session during the nomination period. The recording is below.

Election guide — policy statements and candidate photos

The Election Guide will be produced as a special supplement to Farrago and will be published on the election website. All candidates are entitled to submit policy statements and photos.

The election guide will be available soon.

Withdrawing

If you’d like to withdraw your candidacy, you can do so using the withdrawal form:

You can email completed forms to returningofficer@union.unimelb.edu.au.

Withdrawals can be accepted any time up to the commencement of counting for your position. Because this year’s ballot is electronic, counting for all positions will begin immediately following the close of polls.

Once your withdrawal is received by the Returning Officer, it cannot be rescinded.

Getting help

If you have questions, contact the Returning Officer. We can assist you with procedural and administrative requirements, and answer questions about process. Note that, consistent with the Returning Officer’s commitment to impartiality, we cannot assist you in determining if you should run for any positions or whether you would be suitable.

Eligibility to stand for election

It is your responsibility to ensure you meet the requirements in the Constitution and Regulations to stand for election. We have summarised the most common requirements below; note that terms are defined in the Constitution.

Please note the definitions of terms below can be found in the Electoral Regulations and Constitution.

If you are running for... You must...
Women’s Officer, Women’s Committee Be a Woman
Queer representative on Students’ Council, Queer Officer, Queer Committee Be Queer
Queer Officer (not running jointly) Be a Woman, Trans or Non-Binary
Queer Officer (running jointly) One candidate must be a Woman, Trans or Non-Binary
Women’s Officer (running jointly) One candidate must be a Woman of Colour
Officer position held jointly One candidate must be a Woman
Indigenous representative on Students’ Council, Indigenous Officer, Indigenous Committee Be an Indigenous Student (according to the University’s records)
Students with Disabilities representative on Students’ Council, Disabilities Officer, Disabilities Commitee Be a Student with a Disability
Students of Colour representative on Students’ Council, People of Colour Officer, People of Colour Committee Be a Student of Colour
International Students representative on Students’ Council Be an International Student (according to the University’s records)
Southbank Campus representative on Students’ Council, Southbank Campus Co-ordinator or Officer, Southbank Campus Committee Be enrolled at the Southbank Campus (according to the University’s records)
Burnley Campus Co-ordinator, Burnley Committee Be enrolled at the Burnley Campus (according to the University’s records)
All positions (except NUS Delegate)

Not be employed by the University, a body corporate controlled by the University, UMSU, the Graduate Student Association, a tenant of the University, or any combination thereof in a 0.5 position or more

Not currently be, or have been in the past twelve months, a member of the governing body of the Graduate Students’ Association
All positions Not have been terminated from any Students’ Council or Committee position this academic year
All Officer positions Not have been an Officer more than twice before (excluding when filling a casual vacancy)
All positions Be a student (including current Students’ Council representatives and Officers on a leave of absence)
Officers, voting representatives on Students’ Council

Not be disqualified from managing a corporation under the Corporations Act

Not be disqualified from being a committee member by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commissioner

Role statements and important information

UMSU provides statements of roles and responsibilities for each position. Scroll to “Roles and Responsibilities” to see them.

UMSU has also supplied information they would like all Officebearer, Voting Council Representative, and Committee candidates to be aware of: