Only one seat contested in Graduate Students Association election

Only one seat will be contested in the graduate student government election this spring as five candidates vie for a seat at forum next year.

Milan Chatterjee, the current Graduate Students Association vice president of internal affairs and a graduate student in the UCLA School of Law, is running for president. Chiao-Wen Lan, a graduate student in public health, is running for vice president of internal affairs. Joel Lanzaga, a graduate student in the Anderson School of Management, is running for vice president of academic affairs. Matthew FitzGerald, a graduate student in the School of Law, and Andres Schneider, the current vice president of external affairs and a graduate student in economics, are running for vice president of external affairs.

Chatterjee, Lan, Lanzaga and Schneider are running together on the Bruin Proud slate. FitzGerald is the only independent candidate. He ran to fill a vacancy in the special election in fall, but lost to Chatterjee.

The small amount of competition is fairly typical of GSA elections, said GSA Election Commissioner Patrick Adler. Last year was one of the most contested elections in recent history, with six candidates running for four elected positions. In 2012 and 2013, none of the positions were contested.

Alder said the candidates are not official until they are confirmed to be students. The candidates will attend an orientation to learn how to abide by the election code at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Students can vote in the GSA election from April 21 to April 27.

Compiled by Katie Shepherd, Bruin senior staff.