A year after a controversial election campaign that saw a presidential candidate disqualified twice from the race and a split-ticket executive, the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) is set to hold elections for its 2019–2020 executive and board of directors in the coming weeks.
The nomination period opened on January 7 and will close on January 16. The following Tuesday, January 22, an All-Candidates Meeting will be held to brief contenders on the election rules. The official campaign period opens the same day and closes more than two weeks later on February 7.
Six executive positions and 17 board of directors positions are in contention. A by-election will be held in the next school year to elect first-year representatives to the SCSU board.
The election comes about a year after last year’s dramatic campaign, which saw presidential candidate Deena Hassan disqualified twice. The first time she was disqualified, the SCSU Elections and Referenda Committee claimed she had not collected enough signatures from valid members. The second time, the chief returning officer issued a ruling against her, claiming campaign violations including pre-campaigning, misrepresenting facts, and a “lack of fair play.”
Last year’s election results were also historic because they resulted in a rare split-ticket executive. Rise Up UTSC, Hassan’s slate, swept almost all executive positions, with UTSC Voice presidential candidate Nicole Brayiannis the sole victor from her ticket.
Voting will be held February 5–7. Unlike elections for the University of Toronto Students’ Union, which are held online, students will have to cast their ballots physically at the Instructional Centre’s Atrium, the Student Centre, or the Tim Hortons in Bladen Wing.
The current SCSU board recently rejected a motion to debate implementing online voting in its elections, citing a fear of possible online coercion and a lack of trust in the university’s voting system, which is used by many student groups including The Varsity.
