Sixteen candidates, nineteen seats

All contestants who ran in the Mount Allison Student’s Union spring election won a seat due to a very limited field of candidates. Only sixteen candidates ran for nineteen available seats on council.

The election coincided with a referendum on the continuation of MASU’s Green Investment Fund. The referendum failed to reach the two-thirds majority it needed to renew the $10 levy on students to fund environmental sustainability projects in the Tantramar region.

Some confusion was caused by the off campus councillor position elections. Six candidates stood for six seats, and unless a candidate garnered no votes at all, all would be elected.

“Because there were only six people running, when the voting system went through and gathered the optional preferential voting system, it only took the first preference,” explained MASU President Melissa O’Rourke.

Vice-President Finance and Operations Josh Outerbridge was concerned that the preferential voting system had been compromised because of the small number of candidates, and checked with Simply Voting, the online voting service, to be sure the elections were legitimate.

Incumbent arts senator Piper Riley Thompson captured eighty one per cent of the 821 votes cast, with newcomer Alexandra MacLeod winning the other nineteen per cent.

Steven Black won sixty four per cent of the votes for social science senator, with Cora Leigh MacDonald capturing the remaining thirty six per cent.

Alaa Ratmi won sixty three per cent of the science senator vote, while sitting first year councillor Daniel Murphy will take a seat as a social science senator with thirty seven per cent of the vote.

The positions of faculty councillors will see those elected sitting both on MASU council and on the university senate. Student senators have traditionally voted in a bloc at senate, so as to ensure student concerns are heard in a setting dominated by faculty and administrators.

Ian Nason was elected to the position of Board of Regents representative, with ninety one percent of those voting checking “yes.” The position will see Nason sit on both MASU council and the university Board of Regents, which concerns itself with the non-academic aspects of running the university.

James Gorman was alone in running for one of three seats for South Side councillors. He received ninety one percent of “yes” votes as well.

Jen Frail received sixty six per cent of votes for North Side councillor, while Madeline Stewart captured the remainder. A third North Side councillor will be elected  the fall.

The remaining North and South side council positions will be filled in the fall semester election, which will also elect the first year councillors.

The valedictorian election saw both the greatest voter turnout percentage, and the largest number of candidates coming forward. After five rounds of preferential voting, Thomas Williams was elected and will be delivering the valediction speech during convocation.

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