Tanjit Nagra wins presidency, to lead majority Strong UMSU executive in 2016-17

After narrow margins, recount, mixed slate elected for second consecutive year

Tanjit Nagra. Photo by Megan Colwell.

For the second year in a row UMSU has elected a mixed slate executive. The incoming executive will be led by president-elect and current Arts Student Body Council president Tanjit Nagra.

In an extremely tight race – in which the margin between first and second place candidates was smaller than the number of spoiled ballots for four of the five executive positions – two candidates from UMSU For You and Strong UMSU each, won a plurality of votes in the initial count.

For the final position – vice-president internal – two candidates (Harrison Katz of UMSU For You and Adam Pawlak of Strong UMSU) tied in the initial count with 1161 each. A recount that extended into early Saturday morning put Strong UMSU’s Pawlak ahead by 9 votes.

The final results were:

President

  • Tanjit Nagra, UMSU For You – 1029 votes (28.0 per cent) – ELECTED
  • Astitwa Thapa, Strong UMSU – 990 votes (27.0 per cent)
  • Niall Harney, UMSU Forward – 847 votes (23.1 per cent)
  • Zachary LeClerc, Zach for Pres – 463 votes (12.6 per cent)
  • Andrew Fenwick, Take Back – 334 votes (9.1 per cent)
  • Spoiled ballots – 97

Vice-president advocacy

  • Allison Kilgour, UMSU For You – 1215 votes (33.9 per cent)
  • Dara Hallock, Strong UMSU – 1229 votes (34.3 per cent) – ELECTED
  • Ashley Penner, UMSU Forward – 1144 votes (31.9 per cent)
  • Spoiled ballots – 172

Vice-president external

  • Wilfred Sam-King, UMSU For You – 1299 votes (36.0 per cent) – ELECTED
  • Bénédicte LeMaître, Strong UMSU – 1208 votes (33.4 per cent)
  • Hannah James, UMSU Forward – 1106 votes (30.6 per cent)
  • Spoiled ballots – 147

Vice-president internal

  • Harrison Katz, UMSU For You – 1161 votes (32.1 per cent)
  • Adam Pawlak, Strong UMSU – 1170 votes (32.3 per cent) – ELECTED
  • Anatol Rennie, UMSU Forward – 914 votes (25.3 per cent)
  • Nick Kuznetsov, Take Back – 373 votes (10.3 per cent)
  • Spoiled ballots – 142

Vice-president student services

  • Ashley Richard, UMSU For You – 1062 votes (29.2 per cent)
  • Jessica Smith, Strong UMSU – 1271 votes (35.0 per cent) – ELECTED
  • Michaela Bohunicky, UMSU Forward – 939 votes (25.9 per cent)
  • Shahab Valipour, Take Back – 360 votes (9.9 per cent)
  • Spoiled ballots – 128

Community representatives

Five community representative positions – aboriginal, international, LGBTTQ*, students living with disabilities, and women – were open for nomination. Only four received nominations, with three of the positions going uncontested. The international students representative position was put to a recount after the initial count registered a difference of only 9 votes – a 1.2 percentage point difference.

Contested – international students representative

  • Masroor Khan, international students representative – 367 votes (49.0 per cent)
  • Steffan Aganbi, international students representative – 380 votes (51 per cent) – ELECTED

Uncontested – students living with disabilities, LGBTTQ*, and women’s representative

  • Alan Bridgeman, students living with disabilities representative – 85.4 per cent(181 yes; 31 no) – ELECTED
  • Theo De Silva, LGBTTQ* representative – 89.5 per cent (314 yes; 37 no) – ELECTED
  • Smriti Kunwar, women’s representative – 88.8 per cent (1591 yes; 201 no) – ELECTED

No candidates were nominated for the position of aboriginal representative. UMSU council is expected to open nominations and select a candidate to fill the position for the coming year sometime after May.

Referendums

The University of Manitoba’s chapter of the World University Service of Canada had their $2.50 fee increase pass by referendum with 66.6 per cent of the vote (2446 yes; 1224 no; 84 spoiled).

Campus radio station UMFM’s $1.50 fee increase was defeated with only 45.6 per cent of respondents supporting the motion (1686 yes; 2016 no; 61 spoiled).