Twenty-four of the 88 candidates running for a Student Senate seat in the Sept. 28-29 Student Government elections are campaigning independent of party affiliation.
Neil Gundavda, an independent student senator and leader of the Independent Coalition of Students, said many of the independent candidates chose to run against the existing parties because they want to be able to move forward with their own ideas for their constituency, rather than being responsible to a party.
"If you give the candidate a lot more leeway, it's a better election strategy," Gundavda said.
Supervisor of Elections Amanda Griffin said, as of Friday afternoon, the Unite Party has 50 candidates running for Senate seats and the Progress Party has 14.
Student Alliance party spokesman Yevgen Sautin said his party will not be participating in this election cycle.
Gundavda said each independent candidate will be responsible for raising their own campaign funds, producing campaign materials such as fliers and T-shirts and promoting their individual platforms.
He said all the independent candidates agreed upon a basic campaign platform, which includes points such as auditing the SG budget, introducing online voting for SG elections and reforming parking regulations on campus, but they are putting heavy emphasis on their own ideas for their dorms or housing districts.
"I think independent candidates have a lot better ideas and are more willing to take on ideas that SG refuses to tackle," Gundavda said.
