The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) elections drew in a 30.1 per cent voter turn out, but with a higher number of abstentions than in previous years.
Incumbent CUSA presidential Fahd Alhattab will be serving a second year as CUSA president with 2,650 votes, as he was elected to the position for a second year on Jan. 27 and 28.
Change candidate Abdullah Jaber placed second with 2,512 votes, and Real Leadership candidate Arpita Dar garnered 2,251 votes. The number of voters abstaining is 1,197, a significant increase from last year’s 318 abstentions.
Alhattab called his win “thrilling.”
“This was, in all my years here at CUSA, and all my years here at Carleton, the toughest election I have ever seen,” he said. “You had three extremely strong slates.”
Out of the six total CUSA executive positions, five were won by candidates from the Your Carleton slate. Ashley Courchene of Change was elected as vice-president (student services), winning 21 more votes than Your Carleton candidate Frena Hailekiros, who was seeking re-election. Currently, the Change slate is undergoing an appeal process in an attempt to overturn the possible disqualification ruled by the elections office of their slate, which would cost Courchene his seat.
“It was very, very difficult to lose a single candidate,” Alhattab said. “Nonetheless, we’re happy to work with anyone who’s elected. We’re in a team when we go into the elections, but when May 1 comes, the six elected executives, that’s the team we move forward with.”
Alhattab also said he plans to sit down and talk with all candidates who ran for executive positions and discuss their ideas for implementing change.
“It’s important to recognize that while we got the majority of votes, many students voted for the platform ideas of the other teams,” Alhattab said. “I think that it’s important that we take that into account.”
Alhattab said the increased voter turnout “shows that our student population is engaged, is involved, that these issues are important to them.”
“It was so competitive, and so much fun. That is democracy—that is the beauty of our system here,” Alhattab said.
