Unofficial results released for the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) show that next year’s executive will consist of four members of U of T Voice and one member of Team Unite. Yolen Bollo-Kamara takes the presidential race, along with teammates Cameron Wathey for VP internal and services, Grayce Slobodian for VP external, and Najiba Ali Sardar for VP equity. Pierre Harfouche, of Team Unite, will be VP university affairs. Harfouche is the first candidate in recent years to win an executive race while not a member of a slate that includes incumbent executives.
Many of the vote counts are extremely close, with automatic recounts for two executive positions — external and university affairs — and one directorial race (St. Michael’s College). In many races, including for every executive position, the number of spoiled ballots reported is greater than the margin of victory of the winning candidate.
Update 8.35 pm: Ye Huang has expressed happiness at the election results, despite not being successful in his bid for president. “I’m pretty happy actually – Pierre won, Pierre won that’s phenomenal,” said Huang, citing the fact that a non-incumbent candidate has not been elected as a union executive for several years.
Wathey also expressed happiness at the results, saying that it was a very tough campaign and he was happy that people believed in him.
Some candidates were not as positive, and raised concerns. Nicky Bhatty, Team Unite’s candidate for VP external said that he was concerned about the extra voting day that occurred on the Mississauga campus on Friday, in terms of tipping the vote in favour of the incumbents. Bhatty lost the position of VP external by 15 votes. He said that he will most likely appeal the decision.
Student governor Aidan Fishman stated that he felt the number of spoiled ballots for all executive positions to be “very peculiar, I find the numbers very high.”
The two slates split the elected seats on the union’s board of directors with U of T Voice winning nine, Team Unite taking 12 and independents claiming three seats. Board elections are subject to an automatic recount if candidates are within 10 votes; Lakisha Ledchumanan won the third seat for the St.Michael College board position by 9 votes, over teammate Bamikuyoro. The hotly-contested Arts & Science At-Large positions were won by Unite’s Kevin Lunianga and Shaohua Qui. Elections for directors to represent UTM are yet to occur.
If executive position results are within a 50 vote margin an automatic recount will be taken — this will occur for the positions of VP university affairs, currently held by Pierre Harfouche, and VP external, currently held by Grayce Slobodian.
Full results
Winners are italicized. Elections subject to an automatic recount are asterisked.
President
Yolen Bollo-Kamara (Voice): 3005
Ye Huang (Unite): 2635
Spoiled: 763
Vice-President Internal & Services
Cameron Wathey (Voice): 2858
Anna Chenchen Yin (Unite): 2694
Spoiled: 835
Vice-President University Affairs*
Pierre Harfouche (Unite): 2810
Zijian Yang (Voice): 2764
Spoiled: 820
Vice-President External*
Grayce Slobodian (Voice): 2574
Nicky Bhatty (Unite): 2559
Spoiled: 1264
Vice-President Equity
Najiba Ali Sardar (Voice): 2919
Baliqis Olaitan Hashiru (Unite): 2479
Spoiled: 1002
Arts & Science At-Large Director
Kevin Lunianga (Unite): 1129
Shaohua Qiu (Unite): 852
Sania Khan (Voice): 813
Kadija Tulloch (Voice): 716
Maha Naqi (Independent): 652
Spoiled: 532
Innis College Director
Yiwen Wu (Unite): 177
Llyvell Gomes (Voice): 82
Spoiled: 39
St. Michael’s College Director*
Michael Kanopolous (Voice): 174
Yu-Chun Huang (Unite): 141
Lakisha Ledchumanan (Voice): 136
Bami Kuyoro (Voice): 127
Spoiled: 64
New College Director
Nick Grant (Unite): 177
Xin Wei Li (Unite): 177
Bukky Adeyinka (Voice): 174
Chen Han (Hank) Ko (Voice): 157
Daniel Marin (Unite): 135
Silviu Konda (Voice): 128
Dennis Tuyishime (Independent): 82
Spoiled: 59
Trinity College Director
Patrick Andison (Indpendent): 260
Joanne (Weichong) Zhang (Voice): 96
Spoiled: 53
University College Director
Eric Schwenger (Unite): 292
Alexandra McKinnon (Voice): 239
Michelle Hsiao (Unite): 163
Felipe Vicencio-Heap (Unite): 144
Spoiled: 92
Victoria College Director
Victor Lee (Voice): 181
Zachary Morgenstern (Independent): 171
Robert (Peng Yu) Fan (Independent): 152
Spoiled: 59
Woodsworth College Director
Jenny Lin (Voice): 229
Sydney Lang (Voice): 217
Josephine Petrolo (Voice): 190
Jennifer Zhang (Unite): 177
Junlin (Eva) Liu (Unite): 162
Spoiled: 76
Professional Faculty At-Large Director
Tolu Alabi (Unite): 772
Andi Musa (Independent): 360
Thomas Boyang Huang (Voice): 344
Spoiled: 316
Faculty of Dentistry Director
Diana Liu: Acclaimed
Faculty of Engineering Director
Paolo Cristopher Piguing (Unite): 579
Kunsu Chen (Unite): 554
Ryan Gomes (Unite): 553
Abhinove Amalsadia (Voice): 167
Safinur Majumder (Voice): 151
Spoiled: 94
Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education Director
Ryan Schwenger (Unite): 182
Niki Loren (Voice): 42
Spoiled: 2
Faculty of Law Director
Ella Henry: Acclaimed
Faculty of Medicine Director
Thomas Ying: Acclaimed
Faculty of Music Director
Nia-Imara Barberousse: Acclaimed
Faculty of Nursing Director
April Huang: Acclaimed
Faculty of Pharmacy Director
Veeral Gohil: Acclaimed
