Thrive UTM slate elected to all UTMSU executive positions in unofficial results

On March 20, the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) published unofficial results for its 2023–2024 general elections on Instagram. The Thrive UTM slate received the most votes in all elections for executive positions, surpassing candidates in the It’s Time UTM and United UTM slates. At the time of publication, the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Elias Ancer and Election and Referenda Committee (EARC) are still examining complaints and appeals, and are expected to release official results shortly. 

The voting occurred in person from March 14–16.

Results

Gulfy Bekbolatova led the UTMSU president race with 1,102 votes. Bekbolatova is currently an assistant to the Vice-President External Alistair Kirk, and plans to continue UTMSU’s Education for All campaign during her term as president. The runner-up, Sam Aboul Hosn of the It’s Time UTM slate, received 667 votes. 2,112 students voted in the presidential election — about 14 per cent of the undergraduate student body. 

John (Yongxin) Liang, who served as an associate for this year’s Vice-President Internal, Wenhan (Berry) Lou, received 1,122 votes for election as vice president internal. Runner-up Linda Tamim received 635 votes. 

Kiki Ayoola led the race for vice president external with 1,036 votes. She is a member of the African Students’ Association, UTM Black Students Association, and Caribbean Connections. Niguel Walker, the runner-up, garnered 652 votes. Ayoola received 40 demerit points, which warrants a disqualification from the elections according to the Demerit Points Tracker. However, these demerit points and further complaints remain under examination by the CRO and EARC and are subject to change. 

Layana Alnabhan is expected to receive the vice-president university affairs position with 1,030 votes. The runner-up was Jinze (Michael) Wang, who received 594 votes. 

For the election of vice president equity, Ruth Alemayehu received 987 votes. This year, Alemayehu served as the UTM Black Student Association’s co-president. In the second place, Jonathan (Divine) Angubua received 613 votes. 

The campaign manager of the It’s Time UTM slate, Adam Aboul Hosn, left a comment on the UTMSU’s Instagram post condemning the CRO for not publicly clarifying the demerit points that the slates received during the elections, which Aboul Hosn wrote were “filed a while back.”