SU General election results in

By Natalie Sit

The shouts of joy heard on St. Patrick’s Day were not Irish revelers, but the winners of the 2000 Students’ Union General Election.

Among the winners were Toby White as SU President, Alix d’Archangelo as Vice-president Events and Mark Hoekstra as VP Academic.

Voter turnout was 11 per cent compared to 17 per cent from the year before. Of the 11 per cent, one student voted by the new distance voting program.

Before the results were announced, the candidates loitered around the university’s two bars.

"I was pretty tense, but the atmosphere seemed happy," said d’Archangelo. "I think that it had to do with all the St. Patrick’s Day festivities going on around us."

When results were posted at 10:30 p.m., the three winners had varied reactions.

"I opened up a big bottle of champagne," said White.

"[I asked] ‘Are you sure?’" said d’Archangelo. "I think that the first thing I heard was Dave Quayat yelling out the results."

"I was congratulated by people before I got there [the SU office]," said Hoekstra. "I felt relief, happiness. I knew [VP Academic candidate] Brent [Robinson] was upset, which took the wind out of the sails."

To round out the SU Executive, Matt Lauzon was acclaimed VP Operations and Finance and Duncan Wojtaszek was acclaimed VP External.

The position of Student Academic Assembly Law Representative resulted in a tie. The two candidates, Shahnaz Jamal and Mandy Sandhu, received 31 votes each.

The SU Election bylaws concerning the situation of a tie state, "The Chief Returning Officer shall write the names of those candidates separately on blank sheets of paper of equal size and of the same colour and texture, and after folding the sheets of paper in a uniform manner and so that the names are concealed, shall deposit them in a receptacle and direct some person to withdraw one of the sheets." Afterwards, the CRO declares the name on the sheet as the winner.

Jamal’s name was drawn Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., and she was declared the winner with 32 votes.

After the results were announced, all three Executive winners toured the campus bars. As for returning to reality, both d’Archangelo and Hoekstra plan to focus on neglected school work.

White has a different idea for his post-election plan.
"Those who were elected, [we’re going to meet] and outline a plan of action," said White.

Though the winners said they found running a campaign a challenge, all had people to help them with each aspect of their campaign from poster design to focusing on important issues.

"The hardest thing about my campaign was attempting to tell such a potentially large group of people everything that I wanted them to know," said d’Archangelo.

Even though Hoekstra had one opponent, he worried about Robinson’s campaign.

"I knew in [making] my decision to run, he [would be] difficult to beat," said Hoekstra. "I had to treat him with respect."

White summed up the two weeks as putting up posters, handing out handbills and talking to people.

"Two weeks is a long campaign," he said.