Three executive positions for the 2018-19 academic year are still up for grabs in the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) after a large number of ‘no confidence’ votes.
A total of 9,564 votes were cast—34.9 per cent of the undergraduate student body—a small decrease from the 2017 elections, which saw a 37.2 per cent voter turnout.
Chief electoral officer Nada Ibrahim said the byelection will likely be in March, but the Elections Office has yet to determine the exact dates. According to Ibrahim, it will cost $4,500 to run a byelection.
Three uncontested One Carleton candidates—David Oladejo (president), Natalie York (vice-president (internal), and Cassandra Ambar (vice-president (student services)—were not elected, with the majority of the vote going to no confidence.
The remaining slate members—incumbent candidate Abdullah Jaber (vice-president (student life), Luke Taylor (vice-president (finance), and Lily Akagbosu (vice-president (student issues)—were elected.
One Carleton was the only slate in the running in this year’s CUSA elections, with four of the six spots going uncontested, resulting in students accusing the Elections Office of failing to advertise the elections enough to interested candidates.
A ‘no confidence’ campaign was launched on social media, encouraging students to vote no confidence in order to bring about byelections where more candidates could run.
Oladejo said he was disappointed that the majority of voters chose ‘no confidence’ for him, York, and Ambar.
“Part of the reason why Carleton University students voted ‘no confidence’ was a misinformation about the election process . . . but the biggest thing was the fact that there were not a lot of options,” he said.
CUSA president Zameer Masjedee, who also serves as One Carleton’s campaign manager, confirmed that Oladejo, York, and Ambar would again act as candidates in the upcoming byelection.
Jordan Glass, a first-year commerce student, said he feels that the election was undemocratic.
“The only democratic aspect that made sense for me was the ability to vote no confidence for those who didn’t support the front-runners,” he said.
Glass added that he was disappointed in the lack of candidates and was unaware election season was happening until it was underway.
“Having an election with such little choice and one group dominating every category breaks the whole point of a democratic election with multiple legitimate candidates,” he said.
Masjedee said he was surprised at the results of the election.
“I just think we didn’t know the extent to which students would get involved with that campaign, and the extent to which students would vote ‘no confidence’ come voting day,” he said. “So when I saw the results, it definitely surpassed my expectations.”
Fourth-year computer science student and founder of the ‘no confidence’ campaign, James Brunet, said he’s certain there will be competition in the byelection. He said he’s been encouraging people to run and plans to be involved in the election in some capacity.
“People involved with the [no confidence] campaign are looking forward to running,” he said. “There definitely will be a challenge.”
When asked if he would run, Brunet said, “I don’t know.”
Masjedee said that while it’s hard to control the competition, he understood that students were unhappy with the lack of candidates and their votes reflected this.
“If for you, the definition of democracy is being able to choose between a multitude of candidates, only having one candidate isn’t really democracy,” he continued. “I get that justification, which was sort of going around the internet.”
Despite the outcome, Oladejo said he believes that ‘no confidence’ should always remain an option on CUSA’s election ballots.
“It is a way for Carleton students to voice their opinion about certain things . . . and it’s good to have it on the ballot because students have the right to vote,” he said.
Ibrahim said that in past years, there has been an influx of candidates and she’s not sure why this year had so few. At an emergency CUSA council meeting before the election, Ibrahim maintained that the electoral code had been followed to a tee when it came to advertising the election.
Ryan Stoparczyk, a first-year cognitive science student, said he believes that the election was advertised “long enough in advance.”
“A re-election that better represents the people going to the school would probably be beneficial for the students’ perception of CUSA,” he added.
But, she added that “the focus should be on the candidates and what CUSA can do for the students, not on the price of the byelection.”
Oladejo said he believes the election was democratic, but that it was unfortunate that only one team ran. He also said going forward, more should be done to improve the next elections.
He said he plans to submit two motions to CUSA council before the byelection: one to extend the period between when the writ of election drops and the start of the nomination period to one week, and another to make it mandatory to notify all Carleton undergraduate students about election information after the writ drops via email.
Oledjo said he’s still hopeful for the byelection in March.
“Work can still be done and there will be ideas we will carry over to the byelection,” Oladejo said.
—With files from Rachel Emmanuel
Graphic by Mariam Abdel-Akher
