After a week of campaigning and two days of voting, unofficial results from the Dalhousie Student Union election are in.
Along with next year’s representatives being determined, the election also saw six candidates and societies get fined or disqualified from running. One candidate and one society were disqualified for “attempted interference with the voting process.” Another was disqualified for “campaigning during the voting period.”
Executive and councillor results
Three of five DSU executive positions have been determined for the upcoming year according to initial election results: president Mariam Knakriah, vice-president (finance and operations) Henry Amin and vice-president (internal) Tammy Maniou. Because of disqualifications, the vice-president (student-life) and vice-president (academic and external) positions will be picked via byelections at a later date.
The elected community representatives are Omotayo Bankole as the Black students’ community representative and Alfonso Abraham as the students living in residence community representative (both
positions went uncontested). Ryan Dee and Eshan Arora were elected for the two Dalhousie University Board of Governors representative positions.
Knakriah was elected president over Owen Connelly, earning 42.6 per cent of the vote. Connolly received 30.5 per cent. 1663 students participated in the presidential vote. In the vice-president (academic and external) vote, Ramandeep Singh earned a leading 26.4 per cent of the vote. But he was disqualified from the race after, according to the DSU, vote interference and campaigning during the voting period. A byelection for the position will be held soon.
In an emailed statement from DSU chief returning officer Michael Favel, Singh’s case remains under investigation. As a result, he couldn’t reveal further details.
Amin was elected as vice-president (finance and operations) with 81.2 per cent of the vote. Amin was the only candidate running for this position. For the vice-president (internal) position, Maniou won re-election with 34 per cent of the vote, beating out Daiyam Basharat, who garnered 30.1 per cent of votes. Of the 2271 students who voted, 816 abstained from voting on the vice-president (internal) position.
For the position of vice-president (student life), incumbent Emilia Cordova took 46.7 per cent of the vote. However, she was disqualified for campaigning during the voting period. The Gazette did not receive any further details of Cordova’s case before deadline. Cordova ran against Hawaraa Gholami, who only garnered 25.1 per cent of the vote.
Results from levy referendum
In this election, there were also four levy increase referendums being held, three exclusive to Dalhousie’s Halifax campus and one to the Truro agricultural campus. Of the societies attempting to increase their levies, only one referendum passed: the Loaded Ladle. Its proposed increase of $1.50 per student to their levy passed with 58.6 per cent of the vote. All other societies campaigning for an increased levy weren’t successful. The Dalhousie Agriculture Student Association had their levy increase rejected
with 66 per cent of participating students voting against it. Only Truro students voted in this referendum.
The Dalhousie Outdoors Society barely missed out on an increase, with 50.6 per cent of students voting
against a levy boost. Dalhousie’s campus radio station, CKDU-FM, also was unable to pass their levy with 68.3 per cent of students voting against their proposed increase.
On top of that, the DSU said CKDU was disqualified from the election due to interfering with the voting process. According to a statement from Favel, CKDU campaigned with posters during the voting period — against election rules.
COVER PHOTO: Angela Capobianco
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