By SELBY STEWART, SIMON KUPERMAN and MATILDA BOSELEY

MONSU Caulfield’s incumbent student political leaders – mostly different  to those who were elected last year, and now part of the new party Forward – will be elected unopposed. 

The party Unite was elected into office last year on a platform of international student representation and advocacy. 

• Mojo report: Forward ticket unopposed because team did a great job, says outgoing president

The ticket was mostly international students, with substantial representation from China. However, through the year there were at least eight changes of elected positions.

Many of those new representatives will be part of the new MONSU administration. Outgoing MONSU president Bryn Dodson said it was not a rebranding of Unite, but a whole new party. 

The changes were never announced on MONSU’s social media, except for the replacement of the elected former president Ziqi Han and vice-president Yangdonxue Liu by activities officer Bryn Dodson and Fintan Dowling (not previously part of Unite) on April 18.

The elected office-bearing positions were held by seven international and four domestic students, however the changes flipped this ratio.

There are now three international and nine domestic students in office-bearing positions, with a second queer officer added to the council during the year.

Mr Dodson said in an interview  with Mojo News editor Matilda Boseley earlier this year the party simply chose “the best person for the job”.

Among the other positions that changed were: both activities officers, sports and recreation officer and the welfare officer, as well as an additional queer officer.

The party said the changes were spurred by several resignations.

The former president was removed after reportedly taking extended sick leave. Their removal was permitted under the constitution.

Neither responded to questions regarding their removal.

For 2019, the full ticket for the newly named Forward has 15 positions being filled, and out of these, it appears just three international students – including overseas student service officer – will hold positions in MONSU next year.

The party would not confirm how many international students had been nominated.

• See the full unopposed 2018 MONSU ticket HERE

• Story edited to include a comment from Mr Dodson on the status of Forward and some other text changes.