The official candidates for the Associated Students of the University of Arizona elections will be announced today, followed by a two-hour candidate meeting starting at 6 p.m., said ASUA elections commissioner David Martinez III.

Candidates were initially supposed to be announced yesterday at noon, but a change in the candidate packet deadline slowed the process.

The original deadline for candidate packets was Jan. 29 but was later moved to Jan. 30, which caused the entire review process to fall behind schedule, Martinez said.

Four presidential packets, two executive vice-presidential packets, five administrative vice-presidential packets, and 20 senatorial packets were turned in Tuesday, Martinez said.

The candidates are running for 10 available senate seats and three executive seats, including student body president.

To make sure each potential candidate meets all ASUA requirements, they were screened by the elections commission following the deadline.

Potential presidential candidates were required to have at least 500 signatures from UA students to be considered, although most hopefuls try and get around 1,000, Martinez said.

All candidates are invited and encouraged to attend the first official candidate meeting later today, which will last around two hours.

During the first hour, candidates will learn about the elections code and other general information about campaigning and election workings.

In the second hour, each set of cabinet candidates will be taken to the specific area in the ASUA office where they might be working next year.

This part is something that was not done last year, but Martinez feels is an important part of the process for candidates “”so they can see, ‘Wow, I could be in charge of this section.'””

Campaigning officially begins Feb. 12 and the primary elections are scheduled for Feb. 27 through Feb. 28.

The general elections are March 6 and 7, and winning candidates will be announced March 7.