ACCLAIMED WITH PRELIMINARY results of 3,589 votes in favour, Muslim Students’ Association president Adam Gilani is set to become the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa’s (SFUO) next vp finance.
“I’m very happy that … I had a large number of students vote ‘yes’ and really show their faith in the plans that I have for next year,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to continue working on some of the great things the SFUO has done in the past and make sure we move forward with that.
“It was a lot of campaigning, a lot of hours went into this,” said Gilani. “I gave it my all, campaigned right ‘till five minutes before 7 p.m. to make sure we didn’t miss anyone, and that showed: We had a higher voter turnout than past years. It was extremely tiring, but it was well worth it.”
When asked about his plans for the position, Gilani pointed to his platform.
“All of the things that are in my platform, [I’m] looking forward to accomplishing all of them,” he said. “Some of the things that were in my platform included making sure that we have broad-based budget consultations with as many students as possible, and I intend to make that a reality as soon as possible, making sure we engage as many students [as possible].”
Gilani committed to get straight to work upon assuming the position.
“We take over in May … and the first budget is due not [long] after that, so definitely I’m going get right into gear in the summer and make sure we get those budget consultations going and present our first budget as soon as possible,” he said.
Tasha Peters, Amalia Savva, and Marie-Claude Noël—who were a part of Gilani’s affiliation—were defeated.
“It’s a bittersweet moment having just won the election, but also some of my colleagues who were running with me—who I was supporting—evidently have … not come through,” he said. “It’s going take some time to really settle in to what’s happened—the reality of what the next year’s exec is going to look like—so we’ll wait and see what happens.”
—Edward Roué
