Meet your new SU: 2024 General Election results announced
By Julieanne Acosta, Eula Mengullo, Nazeefa Ahmed, Vama Saini, March 7 2024—
Candidates and students were present for the Students’ Union (SU) general election results that were announced today in the South Courtyard of Mac Hall.
Students enrolled in the Winter 2024 semester voted for their top candidates from March 5-7. Students were able to vote or abstain for executive positions, their respective faculty representatives, Board of Governors (BoG) and Senate representatives, as well as a referendum question. Students were also given the option to vote “yes” or “no” for uncontested candidates.
In total, 3,764 students voted in the general election which is 13.29 per cent increase from last year. A referendum question was asked this year regarding the consolidation of the SU Union Bylaw and the SU Constitution — if accepted the SU Constitution will no longer be a governing document within the SU. The majority of students voted “yes” in support of the question at 92.8 per cent. The incorporation of the SU Constitution into the Union Bylaw and the subsequent rescindment of the SU Constitution will take effect on April 16 of this year.
This year, the only contested executive position was for the presidential role. As for faculty representatives, only the Faculty of Arts representative, Cumming School of Medicine Faculty representative, Faculty of Science representative and the Schulich School of Engineering Faculty representative were contested. Both Student-at-Large representatives for the BoG and Senate remained uncontested.
Successful candidates provided a statement to the Gauntlet on their win and what they’re excited to accomplish for students in their upcoming term.
Ermia Rezaei-Afsah will serve as the next SU president with 66 per cent of the vote.
“I just wanna be able to be open to the students, make the presidential portfolio something that students can find accessible and I want to actually fight for affordability for us and make sure that we can get our funding back to our post-secondary institutions,” said Rezaei-Afsah.
“Even if I’m not successful, I wanna push for it so the building blocks are built, so eventually we can get something out of it.”
Uncontested candidate Jessie Dinh will serve as the next vice-president academic with 88.1 per cent of the vote.
“It’s been an amazing race. I am so proud of every single person that ran and every single person that put their name forward. I’m incredibly happy to start serving the students in an executive role this time and I am excited to continue the conversations I have already been having,” said Dinh.
Naomie Bakana will serve in the new vice-president internal role — a merger of the vice-president student life role and the vice-president operations and finance role — with 85 per cent of the vote.
“Honestly I’m so excited to put all of my initiatives forward,” said Bakana. “I definitely wanna make sure that every voice is heard and that whatever problems arise, we can find viable solutions for it.”
Mateusz Salmassi will continue his work as vice-president external after winning with 84.5 per cent of the vote.
“I am going to keep pushing to reverse the cuts, keep fighting against tuition increases and fighting for every issue that students need,” said Salmassi.
Aitazaz Shah, Edom Girma, Simchah Atanda, Martin Al-Najar will serve as the next Faculty of Arts representatives, with Shah getting the most votes at 20.6 per cent.
Hannah Kim and Mirza Ali Beg will serve as the next Cumming School of Medicine Faculty representatives, with Kim getting the most votes at 46.2 per cent.
Uncontested candidate Tom Elbert will serve as the next Faculty of Kinesiology representative with 96.4 per cent of the vote. Similarly, Safaa Al-Khaz’aly will serve as the next Faculty of Law representative after running uncontested and receiving 87.5 per cent of the vote.
Gabriela Dziegielewska, Ben Shi and Emmanuel Trinidad will serve as the next Faculty of Science representatives, with Dziegielewska receiving the most votes at 26.6 per cent.
Uncontested candidate Lorraine Ndovi will serve as the next Faculty of Social Work representative after receiving 100 per cent of the vote.
The next Haskayne School of Business Faculty representatives will be Farhan Chisty and Uday Singh Sandhu, with 40.3 per cent and 35 per cent of the vote respectively.
Julia Law will serve as the first School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Faculty representative after receiving 92.3 per cent of the vote.
Tavish Comrie, Debo Dam, Lujaina Eldelebshany will serve as the next Schulich School of Engineering Faculty representatives, with Comrie getting the most votes at 25.7 per cent.
Siraaj Shah will serve as the next BoG student-at-large, winning 86.5 per cent of the vote. The next Senate representative roles will be held by Muntaha Aamir and Elsa Stokes, after receiving 41.1 per cent and 42.8 per cent of the votes respectively.
The following offices will remain vacant at this time — one Faculty of Nursing representative, one Faculty of Veterinary Medicine representative and one Werklund School of Education Faculty representative — those hired into these positions will serve until the October by-elections.
The results will become official on March 15 and elected officials will begin their term on April 29. The full list of executives, Faculty representatives and student-at-larges in the 82nd Student Legislative Council can be found on the SU’s website.