By SYBILLA GROSS,
politics editor

Outgoing MONSU president Bryn Dodson says the Caulfield student elections are unopposed this year because of the strong performance of the current officers.

Most will continue in their positions. 

“It would have been great to see different voices to prove that we are the strongest ticket and to have actually that democratic process," he said.

"However, I believe we are the best party going forward. If people did genuinely have an issue with the current ticket [and MONSU’s performance this year], they would have made a stand and run against them,” he said.

After a tumultuous start to the year which saw a large number of MONSU office-bearing positions changed, Mr Dodson served five months as president, and now is authorising officer for Forward. He said the current group's achievements during that period were further reasons nobody ran against them.

These achievements included the strengthening of diversity inclusion frameworks, better use of students’ Student Services and Amenities Fees and significant increases in attendance at university events, with the mid-semester after exams party attendance increasing from 120 last year to 950 students this year.

The successful lobbying in conjunction with the MSA for compulsory sexual consent modules for first years was another major accomplishment for the student body, he said.

“We lobbied hard for that in order to help ease up the pressure on clubs that run overnight events and off-campus events,” Mr Dodson said.

"Instead of them having to enforce all of those upon their members, we lobbied for that to now go through the university."

When asked for a comment on Forward's plans for the upcoming year, Mojo News received the following statement from incoming president Anthony Eid:

“I think we’ve seen MONSU grow from strength to strength this year and I’m really looking forward to building upon this in 2019. We have a passionate, invigorated and dedicated team who have shown their love for MONSU and are committed to serving all Caulfield students, from all walks of life.”

Mojo News requested a more detailed explanation of MONSU projects planned for the year ahead, but there was no further comment.

The Forward ticket did not take every position in the MONSU office. The one role that remains a mystery is vice-president, which currently has no nominations. 

Forward’s candidate for the position, Kristen Lucas, was deemed ineligible and her nomination was rejected, according the notice of nominations for each position, released last week.

According to the documentation, Ms Lucas’s ineligibility is due to a technicality which stipulates that the student who seconds any nomination for the vice-president must have themselves completed at least eight units of study. Anne Gordon, who seconded Ms Lucas, has not yet completed the compulsory eight units. 

Mr Dodson said that the 70 members belonging to the party internally voted on who to put forward for each position, including for vice-president.

“Every single person on that council voted, as well as a considerable amount of other people and unanimously elected her into that position,” he said.

According to the MONSU Constitution point 37.6, the council can fill the vacant position with a candidate of their own choosing at a later date.

When asked who might fill the vacancy, Mr Dodson said it was "their decision to make at a later date".

“I’d speculate that they’d vote the same."

• Edited to correct information on Ms Lucas's ineligibility.