Students living on residence will only be able to check off candidates from one slate in the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) election after a two-day nomination period that saw only one slate sign up to run.
Real Leadership, led by current RRRA vice-president (administration) Graham Pedregosa, who is now running for president, was the only slate to enter into the election.
The nomination period lasted from Jan. 9-10, one day after the Writ of Election was released and the announcement of the Jan. 16 election.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Christopher Loye said an early election would be beneficial for students.
“We’re going to have an early election because students will not feel overwhelmed by the confluence of politics, academics and a high-stress environment, which is a very potent mixture,” he said.
Pedregosa said he was caught off-guard by the timing of the election and said the nomination period is a “little short” but will “work with what the CEO gives to me.”
With no mention of an early election being called prior to the Writ of Election being released, and registration to run set immediately after, it allowed potential candidates less than 72 hours to file their nomination papers.
RRRA’s constitution allows for the CEO and the incumbent executive to select the campaign period.
Loye and RRRA president Will Verschuren spoke about an early election date.
“We had a fruitful discussion about the pros and cons to having both an early and late election,” Loye said. “We came to a conclusion that it was best for the students to have an early election.”
Verschuren said after he hired the CEO and his deputy, they all agreed an early election was better for students.
“The timing of the election last year hurt my grades. In an early election, however, everyone was on equal playing field and we only began several days before CUSA,” he said.
Loye said a RRRA election called around this time of the year is “common knowledge” among students.
Last year’s Writ of Election was released on Jan. 31, a weekend before nominations could be filed and more than two weeks before the date of the election on Feb. 13.
The first mention of the 2014 election by RRRA online was a Facebook post made on Jan. 22, nine days prior to the writ being released.
This year, the first mention of the Jan. 16 election on RRRA’s Facebook page was on Jan. 8, the same day the writ for the 2015 election was released.
Loye said there was no requirement “to make notice available prior to the writ being dropped.”
