SU announces byelection results in Den’s Red Room

By Jason Herring, October 13 2017 —

The Students’ Union 2017 byelection wrapped up on Oct. 13 as SU chief returning officers Hamnah Altaf and Dave Antoniak announced the election results at the Den’s Red Room.

The SU holds byelections in order to elect students to positions that were left vacant after the general election or because an elected official has stepped down. This byelection was intended to fill vacancies for representatives of the faculties of medicine, education, social work and veterinary medicine, as well as to elect a student-at-large to sit on the University of Calgary Senate.

Altaf and Antoniak announced the results to a crowd of about 20.

With 53 per cent of the vote, Anayat Sidhu will join Alisha Gordon on the U of C Senate.

Megan Leung won the position of Werklund School of Education representative with 59 per cent of the vote. She said that she’s excited to start the role.

“I want to get started with my Indigenous initiatives. That’s the most important thing to me at this moment,” Leung said.

Jameson Dundas was elected as the Cumming School of Medicine representative with 17 per cent of the vote. His competitor, Jarin Thundathil, received 70 per cent of the vote, but was disqualified for exceeding the maximum permitted campaign funding.

Marissa Bennett was acclaimed as the social work representative. Because no one ran to become the veterinary medicine representative, the position will remain empty while the SU’s nominations committee searches for a candidate.

The position of vice-president external remains vacant after Shubir Shaikh resigned from the role in late September — a few weeks outside of the window in which the position would have been eligible for election via the byelection. The SU’s nominations committee will form a subcommittee to recommend a replacement for Shaikh among elected officials currently sitting on Students’ Legislative Council. After SLC appoints a new VP external, nominations committee will focus on replacing the vacancy left by that appointment.

This year’s byelection had a voter turnout of five per cent, with 1,284 students voting.