Voting for the SU byelection open Oct. 10–12

By James Falls, October 9 2018 —

Students can vote for the Student Union’s vice-president external executive position in this week’s byelection from Oct. 10–12.

There are two candidates running for the position in the byelection: Laura Caraballo and Anayat Sidhu. The position became vacant in April when incoming VP external Puncham Judge resigned following an incident at Bermuda Shorts Day. In June, the SU’s Nominations Committee declared a failed search after attempting to fill the position internally. The responsibilities of vice-president external have been divided between the four executives in the interim.

A forum was held last week for candidates to discuss their platforms. When asked about the difference between a byelection and the general election, SU Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Hamnah Altaf acknowledged the shorter time frame for candidates to prepare their platforms.

“It is definitely a shorter time frame,” Altaf said. “I think there’s only a couple of weeks the candidates have to campaign, as opposed to general, where there’s lots more time.”

The VP external is the SU’s representative to political bodies outside of the university, including municipal, provincial and federal government.

Students can also vote for the SU’s Schulich School of Engineering faculty representative. There are four candidates running for that position: David Atkins-Appledoorn, Mohamed Elrafie, Barney Miao and Ioana Rontu.

“There was one acclamation and that was in education,” Altaf said, referring to Tina Miller, who was the only student to run for the Werklund faculty representative position.

Students can vote in their myUofC Student Centre and in person from Oct. 10–12. Polling booths will be located in the North Courtyard of MacHall, ICT and the Education Link and are open from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. each day. Online voting opens at 9 a.m. each day. All undergraduate students registered for the Fall 2018 semester are eligible to vote.

Results from the 2018 byelection will be announced the Den and Black Lounge’s Red Room at 5 p.m. on Oct. 12.