Lower voter turnout than 2023 by-election
On Feb. 18, the University of Ottawa Students’ Union (UOSU) published its 2024 general election results.
2,482 undergraduate students voted in the elections; a turnout rate of 6.74 per cent. This is notably a point lower than the turnout for the most recent by-election which had 2,999 ballots cast for a 7.7 per cent turnout — the highest by-election turnout in UOSU’s brief history.
UOSU’s 2023 general election had a 3.8 per cent turnout.
Referendum Results
Referendum questions to stop the collection of CHUO and Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) student levies won the consent of students for a second time, the first successful campaign for these questions were run in the 2023 by-elections, but the results were not ratified at the Autumn General Assembly (AGA) after UOSU’s Board of Directors (BOD) received legal advice, which was relayed to the assembly. This non-ratification appears only to have angered students further, as 70.53 per cent of respondents voted to remove CHUO’s levies and 65.8 per cent voted to remove levies to OPIRG.
A referendum question on the addition of a $4.99/semester “club funding” levy passed with 54.27 per cent voting in favour.
The only referendum to fail was a proposed financial adjustment to the UOSU Health and Dental policy, moved by UOSU themselves.
UOSU Executive
Delphine Robitaille was elected president for a second term, receiving 1704 “Yes” votes and 250 “No” votes in an uncontested race. 528 students opened their ballots to abstain from this decision.
Current interim equity commissioner Imani Bunzigiye won a full term in the same role with 1313 votes (81.18 per cent), beating out Eloïse Badin who received 292 votes (18.19 per cent). This race had 877 abstentions.
Daphnée Veilleux-Michaud won the francophone affairs commissioner over the current interim commissioner Tristan Maldonado-Rodriguez. Veilleux-Michaud garnered 1235 votes in comparison to Maldonado-Rodriguez’s 467 votes. 780 students choose to abstain.
Candidate for advocacy commissioner, Habiba Laoulidi, was disqualified during the voting period.
The roles of operations commissioner, the newly-established communications commissioner, student life commissioner, and advocacy commissioner will be vacant to start the term. Interim commissioners will likely be hired over the summer and fully elected in the October by-elections.
UOSU Board of Directors (BOD)
The BOD is elected by ranked ballot for faculties that have more candidates than seats.
In the faculty of Social Science (FSS), current director James Adair won a second term in the same role, while previous student life commissioner Rayne Daprato was elected to serve a term as director. Angel Geneau, Tatenda Musundire and Ian Reid won the remaining three FSS seats. Rhys Matthew and Megan Betsworth McNeil were not elected to the board. Find the Fulcrum’s interview with FSS candidates here.
For health sciences, Grace Tongue was elected for a second term as director and will be joined by newcomer to the board, Farah Mourad. Daniel Bersyniow was unsuccessful in his campaign for re-election, and Colton Chaput was also not elected.
Alexander Kudryahova and Iacov Donos were elected to represent the Telfer School of Management, while two board seats remain vacant.
From the Faculty of Engineering, John Lopes, Jason Shum and Taha Riyaan were each elected.
Running uncontested, former ISA director Quanah Traviss was elected to represent the faculty of Arts.
Dana Ibrahim won the common law seat in another uncontested race.
The faculties of Education, Medicine and Civil law will each have one vacant seat to start the term. It is up to the BOD to appoint interim directors for the period between the start of the term and by-elections in October.
University Senate
In Uncontested races, Hanif Ehsani won for Arts, Alexander Hnatovsky won for common law, Abigail Lyons won for Telfer, Jacky Lee won for Medicine, and Sandra Uhlrich won for the faculty of Social Science.
In the only contested race for a Senate seat, Valmik Duvadie beat out Buse Loclar and Areeba Choudhry to win the seat for the faculty of Science.
University Board of Governors (BOG)
Current UOSU Common Law director Gabrielle Muzychka won the Board of Governors seat over Maryam Hussen, Arda Erbayav, Brandon Ly, and Othniel Gandonou.
Muzychka was ranked number one by 614 (36.34 per cent) students. The race for BOG had 794 abstentions.
For full results, visit UOSU’s website.
