The unofficial results of this year’s elections are in for SAC (soon to be known as UTSU), and on top of sweeping the left-leaning Your Team ticket into power in 2007-2008, students also voted in favour of the two referenda attached to the ballot.
Each referendum will add a levy to the student union fees paid by all students. Thirty cents from each student will go to funding the Student Refugee Program, which supports displaced students from abroad continuing their university education in Canada. A 25-cent levy will fund Bike Chain, U of T’s student-run free bike repair service, which opened last year.
Your Team candidate Andrea Armborst, last year’s VP internal, nabbed the chairperson slot, with fellow Your Team members Dave Scrivener (external), Sandy Hudson (equity), Faraz Siddiqui (internal and services), Michael Hay (university affairs), and Ahmad Khan (UTM) filling out the rest of the executive.
The New Deal ticket, whose campaign was run by controversial 2004-05 SAC VP Sam Rahimi, failed to win a single position. Rahimi has stated he intends to appeal the results. The Your Team campaign was aided by another former SAC VP external and political provocateur, Alex Artful-Dodger.
A large percentage of the ballots-around 11 per cent for each VP position-were spoiled, leading chief returning officer Eric Newstad to speculate that many students were more interested in the referenda than in the SAC elections. Students who only wanted to vote on the referenda were also given ballots for the VP elections, perhaps prompting voters to spoil them. About 3,300 students voted for the VP positions and the referenda during the March 7-9 voting period, putting voter turn-out at under ten per cent.
For full election results, see www.uoftsac.ca
-Ben Spurr
