UMSU International 2026 Annual Elections
Results & election information
The declaration of results has been made.
No appeals were received against the provisional declaration of results.
Got a complaint?
See below for information on making a complaint
More information — see below, including how to contact the Returning Officer (who’s in charge of the election and able to assist with election-related inquiries)
Table of contents
List of nominations
The list of nominations is now available.
The list is in ballot paper order, based on a random draw conducted on 13 May.
Further nominations
Nominations have closed. No late nominations can be accepted.
Policy Speech Session
Notice of election
Notice is hereby given of the 2026 UMSU International Annual General Election.
The election will take place online from the 20th–22nd May 2026. All voters will be sent a personalised voting link to their student email account. A full timetable for the election is set out below.
All international students enrolled in a higher education award course are eligible to vote. Full details about eligibility to stand, including the list of positions available, are given below.
Nominations were open from Monday 27th April 2026 and closed at 9am (Melbourne time) on Monday 11th May.
Progressive vote tally
We’ll post a summary of how many votes have been taken each evening of election week.
- Wed 20th May at 5pm — 334 votes
- Thu 21st May at 5pm — 653 votes
Election timetable
- Monday 27th April — formal notice given and nominations open
- 5pm, Friday 8th May — a provisional list of nominations published
- 9am, Monday 11th May — close of nominations
- 4.30pm Monday 18th May — Policy Speech Session
- 9am, Wednesday 20th May — Voting opens
- 5pm, Friday 22nd May — Voting closes
- Within 4 academic days of voting closing — Provisional declaration of results
All times are Melbourne time.
Positions to be elected
Executive Committee
- One (1) UMSU International President
- One (1) UMSU International Vice-President (Education and Welfare)
- One (1) UMSU International Vice-President (Cultural and Social)
- One (1) UMSU International Vice-President (Media and Marketing)
- One (1) UMSU International General Secretary
- One (1) UMSU International Treasurer
Directors
- One (1) UMSU International Education Director
- One (1) UMSU International Welfare Director
- One (1) UMSU International Cultural and Social Director
- One (1) UMSU International Media and Marketing Director
- One (1) UMSU International Human Resource Director
- One (1) UMSU International Partnership and Sponsorship Director
Officers
- Three (3) UMSU International Education Officers
- Five (5) UMSU International Welfare Officers
- Five (5) UMSU International Cultural and Social Officers
- Three (3) UMSU International Media and Marketing Officers
- One (1) UMSU International Partnership and Sponsorship Officer
- Two (2) UMSU International Human Resource Officers
Information for candidates
Nominations are closed. Late nominations can’t be accepted.
Campaigning
Any campaigning must be done in accordance with the UMSU International Electoral Regulations, and can be done only by candidates or their nominated representatives. The below gives a simplified outline of the rules, but all candidates are responsible for reading the Regulations, particularly Electoral Regulations 13 and 14, and ensuring they follow them.
All rules in the Regulations are enforced, not just the ones listed below.
New in 2026: social media rule changes
The Regulations to have been amended to make the rules around sharing on social media more practical. Our view is as set out in Determination 1:
- Students, who are not candidates/registered campaigners, may reshare social media in the platform’s usual way, as long as no substantial material is added with the reshare, such resharing is not part of an organised course of conduct, and is not solicited by the candidate or their campaigners.
- As a general guide, anyone repeatedly resharing material, altering material, or targeting material at specific groups or audiences will be viewed as high-risk of breaching this rule.
- All material on social media must be prepared in a way that, when reshared, the name and student number of the publisher remains on or clearly linked with the material.
We will review this as the election progresses.
Lanyards
Last year we introduced lanyards for campaigners (including the candidate, when campaigning). This has now been codified in EReg 12.8. You need to wear your student ID in your lanyard.
Key rules simplified
- Campaigning is any “organised course of action to arouse public interest in any candidate(s)”. Simply put, if you (or someone else) are doing something that tends to make someone vote for you, it’s campaigning. (EReg 12.2)
- Campaigning includes things you do in person, things in real life (like posters) and things online (like social media)
- Generally, you can do anything not prohibited by a regulation. For example, you can hand out “how to vote for me” flyers to students around campus, post on social media, place posters on general-use noticeboards throughout the university, or publish an election manifesto.
- If you’re not sure if something you’re planning is permitted, talk to us first
- You can only campaign during the election period, 20th – 22nbd May. (EReg 12.2)
- You can prepare beforehand (e.g. design posters, save private drafts of social media)
- Only candidates and their registered student representatives (see below) can campaign. (EReg 12.1)
- For example, this means you can’t get your friends to help you campaign (except if they are your registered student representatives)
- All publicity (including written material, pamphlets, videos, things posted to social media) must be registered with the Returning Officer (see below). (EReg 12.7)
- If you intend to campaign at events (including campaigning down queues of students) we’d like you to be very careful and bear some things in mind. First, event organisers are in charge of their events (not us), and are entitled to prohibit you and other people from handing material out. Therefore you need to seek permission from the event organiser to campaign. (It’s only relevant to us if the event organisers are applying rules to benefit or harm specific candidates.) Second, the Regulations prohibit endorsements, distribution of incentives, and the use of UMSU/University resources to campaign. While your mere presence campaigning at an event doesn’t necessarily breach these rules, you have to take care to make sure no reasonable student could perceive that you are endorsed by the event organisers, and that your campaigning is in no way connected to anything being handed out for free at the event. We get complaints about this every year and many result in penalties.
- There are some things you cannot do:
- You can’t form a group (sometimes called a “ticket” or “slate”) and campaign together as a team. (EReg 12.4) This also means you can’t hand out how-to-vote material endorsing someone else.
- You can’t campaign to someone who is actively voting (that is, if someone has their phone out and is finding the voting link in their email, or is on the ballot page, you must not be near them, must not be campaigning to them and most not be able to see their phone screen) (EReg 12.3)
- You can’t bribe, use inducements, or offer things to people to get them to vote or to vote for you. This means, for example, you can’t hand out lollies with your fliers, or offer people a chance to win something if they read or like your post. (You can make campaign promises, i.e., promises to do certain things if you win, but you must be clear they are campaign promises that benefits student generally, not offers to specific individuals in return for their vote.)
- You can’t use the resources of UMSU, UMSU International or the University to campaign (unless they are resources generally available to all students). (EReg 13.3[f])
- You can’t campaign in a way that harasses or intimidates others (including voters, other candidates, and members of the public). (EReg 13.3[e])
- You can’t use the logo of UMSU International in your publicity, or in any way suggest that UMSU International officially endorses you. (EReg 12.7[c])
- You can’t send messages in bulk, using lists of phone numbers or email addresses. (You can email people you know individually to seek their vote.)
Registration of material
All publicity materials must have a copy registered with the Returning Officer before being distributed, posted or made publicly available. (EReg 12.7)
Things that need to be registered include: pamphlets, “how-to-votes”, posters, social media posts, videos posted on social media, widely-distributed messages,
What doesn’t need to be registered: private messages you send to your friends (not publicly viewable), conversations you have with potential voters.
All material needs to identify who is responsible for it to avoid being misleading or deceptive (EReg 13.1). Material should include the words “Published by [my name] ([student number])”.
Registered campaigners
All candidates can campaign for themselves, and in addition can nominate up to two student representatives who can campaign for you.
Important rules:
- You can have up to two campaign representatives, who must be students (you don’t need to have any, if you don’t want to)
- Your campaigners can’t begin to campaign until they have been both registered (above) and have been published on the candidate representative list (which will happen at 8am each day during the elections, and on a best-effort basis we will publish the list more frequently)
- All the rules that apply to your campaigning apply just as much to your registered representatives
- Other than you, and your campaign representatives, no-one is allowed to campaign for you
- This means your friends can’t try to convince others to vote for you (unless they are registered campaigners)
- You are responsible for the conduct of your campaign representatives (even if you didn’t know they did something)
- You can’t change campaigners after publication of the list (except if you originally submitted only one campaign representative, you can subsequently submit a second one)
Returning Officer’s determinations
Regulations
Together, the UMSU International Regulations and the UMSU International Electoral Regulations set out the rules and procedure governing the elections. All participants in the elections must follow the regulations.
How to make a complaint
To make a complaint, please email and include as much detail as possible. Anyone, whether student, staff or community member, can make a complaint.
Returning Officer contact details
The Returning Officer is responsible for running the election.
Office hours: As the election is over, we are no longer regularly on campus, but are available by appointment.
If you have any inquiries, complaints or feedback, please email the Returning Officer: returningofficer@union.unimelb.edu.au. You can also make an appointment if you’d like to discuss something in detail with us, in person or by videoconferencing.