Ballots have been counted and results are in. UTSC has new student leaders from what appears to be its least participatory election.

Though still awaiting ratification, a landslide victory declared Pagalavan Thavarajah the winner of the Scarborough Students’ Union presidency while the positions of VP academics, VP external, and VP students and equity went to Carl Bagot, Abdalla Al-Baalawy, and Zahra Murji respectively.

Attracting a mere nine per cent of the University’s 10,000 students, the February 16–18 election did not match last year’s record-breaking 23 per cent.

“Student participation was admittedly low compared to last year’s numbers,” explains John Aruldason, the current SCSU president and elections liaison. “But we have to keep in mind that it’s because the previous election carried quite a bit of controversy.”

It seems that lack of controversy was not the sole reason why students neglected to vote. Some like Krista Harrison, a human geography major, were unsure of the election’s details.

“There wasn’t enough publicity, I saw posters about it but had no idea when or where it was happening,” she says.

Cell and molecular biology major Lauren Chan admits to simply not being interested in voting. “I was busy during the voting period and, to be honest, I’m not really into politics.”

When told about this year’s low voter turnout, Harrison and Chan said they were not surprised.

“Personally, I don’t feel affected by the elections,” Chan said. “It’s possible that others feel the same way too.”

Harrison agrees. “I don’t really know what exactly [the SCSU] does … They definitely need to expand their reach.”

Newly elected SCSU President Pagalavan Thavarajah admits that he is no stranger to this issue.

“Most SCSU events are always filled with the same people and if we in [the union] who are suppose to represent 10,000 students [are] only catering to a thousand, then are we really doing our jobs? I don’t think so.”

Thavarajah is in the process of developing several programs including “Dream Jobs,” which aims to reach out to students like Harrison and Chan by exposing them to a career-oriented environment through conversations with different industry professionals.

“As president, my goal is to increase communication with students — I want to bring out new faces and really get to know the student body.”