Get your vote on

Ballot boxes warmed up for faculty council elections

Andrew Sain Staff

Spring is around the corner, and along with it will come new student council executives. What better way to bring in the season than to take a look at the procedures of some of the major student body elections that are upcoming or, in some cases, recently finished.

Arts Student Body Council (ASBC)

Voting period: March 30-31. Polls close at 6 p.m.

Elected positions: President, vice-president, academic programmer, social programmer, arts resource centre director, four UMSU representatives (reps), four Senate reps.

Campaign/election format: each position campaigns individually.

Contested positions: Though nominations are still open, current ASBC resident Shea Ritchie said there are currently two candidates for both president and vice-president positions. Last year there were six candidates for the four UMSU rep spots. Other positions ran unopposed.

Voter turnout: “[Turnout] is usually quite weak . . . I think we’re around the 5 per cent mark. Last year there were around 260 voters, which was high,” said Ritchie.

Science Students’ Association (SSA)

Voting Period: March 15 -16. Polls open from 9:30-4:30.

Elected positions: President, vice-president, three UMSU reps, and three Senate reps

Campaign/election format: President and vice-president run as a slate, UMSU and Senate reps run individually.

Contested positions: President and vice-president are running unopposed; there are six candidates for UMSU reps and four candidates for Senate reps.

Voter turnout: According to Reena Bansal, current SSA president last year, there were 130 votes cast (approx. 4 per cent), a number she described as very small.

University of Manitoba Engineering Society (UMES)

Voting Period: March 14-15.

Elected positions: Senior stick, vice-stick academic, vice-stick external, senator and UMSU rep.

Campaign/election format: Individual campaign and election.

Voter turnout: Last election had 18 per cent turnout, amounting to approximately 200 votes. Ryan Supeene, senior stick, said that turnout is usually between 16 and 22 per cent.

Commerce Students’ Association (CSA)

Voting period: Completed; election took place from February 8-9.

New executive: Taren Gesell (president), Patricia Katz (vice-president), Ryan Stoneham (vice-president finance), Matthieu Lazarow and Mike Einarson as UMSU reps.

Voter turnout: 210 voters.

University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association (GSA)

Voting period completed; election took place from March 1-3.

Note: At time of printing only unofficial results were available.

New executive: Meghan Gallant (president), Matt McLean (vice-president finance), Jason Kelly (vice-president student affairs).

UMSU represenatives: Stephen Abioye, Faisal Shibley, Patrick Fortier, Yunfa Zhu. Senate reps: David Zhang, Samuel Ima, Suresh Neethirajan. These positions are pending official approval by senate.

Voter turnout: Approximately 480 voters.