The Killers and Hot Fuss... p. 10

VotumE 35 IssuE 15

UPEI STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Election Results... p. 20

Marcu 22, 2005

Gallant Elected as SU President in Controversial Vote

Nick Stewart News Editor

Ryan Gallant was elected Student Union President in last week’s Student Union elections. He defeated Shami Hariharan and Nancy Peters in the election by collecting 747 votes to Hariharan’s 298 and Peters’ 237.

Gallant said his main goal as SU President is to improve the communication between the Student Union and the students. “As I’ve said throughout the campaign, my first priority is to improve communication between the students and Student Union,” he said. He added that in order to increase student involvement, information must be readily available to students.

Shaun Coady defeated Megan MacKinnon, Brad Deighan, and Jeremy Hogan in the race for Executive Vice President. Ellen Klein topped Ryan McDermott and Shayne Famuagun for the position of Vice President Activities. The Student Union Executive also includes the unelected and non-voting position of Vice President Finance. This position is filled by the Student Union Hiring Board.

Elected Student Council Arts Representatives include Josh Darrach, Kyle Doucette, Chelsey McLennan, Janelle Pitre, and Susan MacDougall.

(L-R:) Ellen Klein and Shaun Coady

Science Representatives are Arlo Sutherland, Peter Grandy, Ashley Holburn, and Colin Burgoyne. The Business Rep. winners are Mark O’Halloran, Ryan Palmer, and Andre Couture. Lindsay Currie was acclaimed as Nursing Rep, Robert MacPherson was elected Ombudsman and Sarah Simpson, Hannah Sutherland, and Shad Qadri were elected as Senate Representatives. Jeff Berkshire and Deidre Kelley were elected Valedictorians for the respective morning and afternoon convocations.

The elections have been marred by several complaints by students and candidates. The complaints range from problems with electronic voting to complaints about the campaign and the debate held in the Courtyard of the W.A. Murphy Student Center two weeks ago. Several students have complained about

problems with the electronic voting system that was used in the elections. There have been complaints that some candidates did not appear on the ballot and other complaints that some students were not able to vote for some positions due to problems with the system. These complaints raise serious concerns about the legitimacy of the elections.

Some students have called for are-vote of the elections. Particularly concerned with the problems are members of the Stars Campaign, a group of candidates who called on students to ‘vote out closed-door politics’ during the election campaign. Most disgruntled candidates and the CRO of the elections, Pat Curley, were unavailable for comment before the deadline. Next week’s Cadre will carry an in-depth look at the complaints surrounding the elections.