Discontentment with the way Student Government (SG) has been run in the past led to the formation of two new parties in addition to the incumbent Red Party.

The parties are the United Party and the Party for Action.

The United Party was founded by current senators Hailey Guerra and Shomari Gloster. Before co-founding, Gloster resigned as the Red Party’s Senate majority leader. Gloster and Guerra founded the party in order to give students more of a say in their student government.

“I saw that there was some discontent on campus with some students only really having one voice on campus, through one sole party, that is supposed to represent an entire diverse student body. I believe that students deserve more options than that,” Guerra said.

Gloster is running as the United Party presidential candidate, and Guerra is running as the United Party Vice presidential candidate.

True Rains, former elections commissioner, founded the Party for Action along with Ryan Hennessy. Rains is running as the Party for Action’s presidential candidate and Hennessy is running as the vice presidential candidate.

Rains felt that a lot of people had good ideas in SG, but that most weren’t acted upon.

“Exactly what we’re focused on is exactly what the name says: action,” Rains said.

The infighting in SG last semester played a small part in the birth of the Party for Action, according to Rains.

“If things had gone smoothly and I agreed with everything they changed I wouldn’t be running,” Rains said.

Both new parties are trying to get their names out as much as possible, in hopes that more students will participate in the election.

As for the Red Party, it was announced on Feb. 3 that Matthew Harris, former Attorney General, is the presidential candidate. Amanda Wollam, the current Government Oversight Committee chairwoman, is the party’s vice presidential candidate.

Harris and Wollam are not only focused on accomplishing their set goals in SG, but also on reaching out more to get student opinions.

“My view of the party is pretty simple. The party stands for getting results done. The party stands for achieving at a basic level, improvements and enhancements to the student experience,” Harris said.

Harris said that he was excited to see people interested in the election, and Wollam agreed.

“It’s encouraging to have competition,” Wollam said.

Voting will be on March 10-11.

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*2/10/15 at 6:00 p.m. – Updated with information