{shortcode-434a5bd12d848ce978206d3a92012234b6afc574}

Seventeen students declared their candidacies for the Undergraduate Council in this spring’s midterm elections, vying for ten open seats across nine upperclassman Houses, according to UC Election Commission chair Jubin Gorji ’21.

The campaigning and voting period will take place between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1. Open seats in the midterm elections result from representatives deciding to leave the Council after only one semester of their year-long terms or from the end of terms for members of the Executive Board.

Additionally, the election of UC President Catherine L. Zhang ’19 and Vice President Nicholas D. Boucher ’19 in November left open seats in Cabot and Mather Houses, respectively.

This year’s midterm election will be the first to utilize the UC’s new election software. The Council launched a new voting system this month after some students said they were unable to submit ballots during last November’s presidential election.

The seventeen declared candidates mark a continued decline in the number of students opting to run in UC midterm elections. Last year, 27 students declared their candidacy for the spring, compared to 35 the spring before.

Four Houses—Adams, Dudley, Dunster, and Leverett —will have uncontested elections, while competitive races will occur in Cabot, Currier, Mather, Pforzheimer, and Quincy Houses. There are two open seats in Dunster this cycle. There are no open seats in any freshman yard, the first time since 2015.

Twelve of the 17 students running for office are sophomores, while three are juniors, and two are seniors.

Only two of the candidates—Student Relations Committee Chair Victor C. Agbafe ’19 and former UC Secretary Ruiqi He ’19—are running for re-election. Agbafe previously ran an unsuccessful bid for the UC presidency in last November’s election.

The following students have declared their candidacies for the UC:

Adams House

K. Yu-Mi Kim ’20

Cabot House

Ashish Dahal ’20

Maureen Tang ’20

Currier House

Michael A. Shadpour ’20

Calder I. Miller ’20

Anne M. Raheem ’19

Dudley House

Sophia M. F. Higgins ’20

Dunster House

Victor C. Agbafe ’19

Andrea Martinez ’20

Leverett House

Ruiqi He ’19

Mather House

Andrew Perez ’20

Robert M. H. Lowe ’20

Elena Monge Imedio ’18

Pforzheimer House

Clifford S. Courvoisier ’20

Victoria M. Marquez ’20

Quincy House

Giannina Marciano ’18

Katherine Qian ’20