SUS election results!

These are unofficial until next Thursday, but I thought I'd post them anyhow. Note the high voter turnout via WebCT!


President
Michael Duncan - Yes 1079, No 206

Vice President External
Jamil Rhajiak - Yes 989, No 227

Vice President Internal
Jimmy Yan - 474
Stephen Yoon - 321
Gregory Stegeman - 211
Farzin Barekat - 157

Director of Administration
Alex Lougheed - 608
Maria Jogova - 572

Director of Finance
Lois Chan - 583
Aaron Sihota - 404
Vishal Hirilal - 194

Director of Publications
Ally Vaz - 676
Varun Ramraj - 439

Public Relations Officer
Meghan Ho - 440
Lawrence Chow - 402
Mark Berg - 326

Director of Sports
Polly Kwok - Yes 885, No 296

Science Senator
Diana Diao - 605
Geoff Costeloe - 409
Martin Sing - 196

Alma Mater Society Council Representatives
Lougheed - 517
Tahara Bhate - 454
Tristan Markle - 420
Clark Funnell - 396
Maria Jogova - 389
Stephen Yoon - 346
Anita Yuk - 322
Maayan Kreitzman - 290

Thoughts behind the jump.

My impressions are as follows - I'm not at all surprised Mike Duncan won by a landslide yes vote, nor by the wins of Alex Lougheed, Lois Chan, Meghan Ho, and Diana Diao.

I do hope Alex Lougheed will lose some of his arrogance and actually try to work with people in order to push anything forward. I also hope Lois Chan's platform of rage will transform, again, into something productive and progressive. Since she controls the budget, it places her in a powerful role in thinking twice about blindly allocating money (and thus execution) towards self-serving events. Make no mistake - electing those two was a clear message that SUS will have to slap itself in the face several times: we, the members of SUS, want to see change.

Diana will have to learn how to speak out and work beyond the prescribed codified duties if she wants to get anything done at Senate - something she has yet to demonstrate (despite of her boyfriend's objections to this on WebCT). Organizing an open house at SUS in no way translates to an ability to speak up on the floor of senate or advocating for student agendas through administrative hurdles.

The surprises are Tahara's win to AMS Council and Ally Vaz (well not so much, I'm sure her sorority helped her out tons).

I'm sad that Maayan didn't make the elections cut, because I can see her be a very diligent and thoughtful AMS councillor. This once again shows that popularity is still an emanating force in the democratic process - informed voting would have no doubt placed her higher.

Most importantly, I'm really happy about the Voter turnout. In the past voter turnout was around 10% (ish). WebCT proved to be a tool of convenience and accessibility and I suppose this helped the strong(er) numbers shown above.

Congratulations to the winners - you have a heavy task ahead of you.