Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) have marked the beginning of election season on campus, dropping their writ of election for 2020.
Following last year’s council decision to begin elections earlier, CUSA councillors voted unanimously at a meeting on Dec. 5 to leave more than two months between nomination period and dropping the writ.
This year’s elections will begin Jan. 15 and carry through till the end of the month, with longer blocks of time for the nomination, validation, campaigning, and voting periods.
The extended time slots come as a result of amendments made to CUSA’s electoral code after a 2018 election saw an overwhelming majority of “No Confidence” votes.
“I definitely think the longer time allows for more students to figure out over the holidays if they actually want to run,” president Lily Akagbosu told the Charlatan.
Akagbosu said CUSA elections can quickly become quite taxing. “It’s an intense time of the year, and those who want to run should be prepared for very long, exhausting hours,” she added.
But as someone who’s won two successful elections, Akagbosu said there’s always people willing to give advice.
“Our student leadership on campus is very cordial, there’s lots of mutual respect,” she said. “And that’s something we can take into this election.”
This year’s election ballot will also include a referendum question, asking students whether they would pay an optional levy of $9.99 per semester, subject to inflation, on top of their university fees towards Ottawa-based scholarship service FundQi.
Filling up the elections office are Claudia Calagoure-Perna as chief electoral officer, and Kuukua Gyan-Tawiah with Ophelia Bradly as deputy electoral officers. All three will preserve their roles for the FundQi referendum.
Twenty-six councillor and six executive positions—including CUSA president and five vice-president positions—are up for grabs.
Council voted to amend the electoral code this year, only allowing those who paid for their CUSA fees to run for the 2020 election, in light of the province-wide Student Choice Initiative.
Campaign budgets have been restricted to $200 for councillors and $600 for executives, respectively. Fifty per cent of those costs will be refunded by CUSA, as long as budget restrictions have been met.
Nomination period kicks off Jan. 15, running until 6 p.m. on Jan. 17.
After nominations are validated by the CUSA elections office from Jan. 20 to Jan. 21, candidates will be given five days to campaign from Jan. 22 to Jan. 28 before polls open the next day.
Voting will take place via ranked ballot online and in-person from Jan. 29 to Jan. 30. Early unofficial results will be presented to the Charlatan and candidate-appointed scrutineers shortly afterwards.
Featured image from file.
