The 2018 KSA Election Results Are In

Seventeen student representatives have been elected as a result of the 2018 Kwantlen Student Association election held on Feb. 7 and 8. Each of these students will hold seats on KSA Council through the 2018/19 term.

Beginning with the Faculty Representatives, both candidates running to represent students in the faculty of Science and Horticulture, Victoria Kalitowski and Rabia Khan, were elected with 86 and 129 votes respectively. While this will be Kalitowski’s first time on Council, Khan has been re-elected to the position she currently holds.

Four of the five candidates running for Arts Representative positions on Council were elected, filling all four positions available. Natasha Farris was re-elected with 71 votes, as was David Piraquive with 52 votes. Hannah Cenaiko and Shonel Kumar have both been elected for the first time, with 69 and 50 votes, respectively.

The only candidate running for Arts Rep. who was not elected was Tawahum Justin Bige, who has previously served on Council as Aboriginal Representative. He received 38 votes.

Business Representatives also hold four positions on KSA Council. Because only three candidates were running for these positions, each one received a number of votes for and against their election. Two of the three candidates, Puneet Bering and Shereen Bhatia, received more “Yes” votes than “No” votes and will thus sit on the KSA Council for the coming term. Bering received 245 “Yes” votes and 101 “No” votes and Bhatia received 199 “Yes” votes and 119 “No” votes.

The third candidate, Jay Reedy, who is currently the KSA VP Student Life, was not re-elected as a Business Representative, receiving 135 votes against his candidacy and 123 votes for.

Moving onto the Campus Representatives, Hassan Bilan has been re-elected as the Langley Campus Representative with 344 “Yes” votes and 154 “No” votes, while Damanpreet Garcha has been re-elected to represent students on the Richmond campus with 388 “Yes” votes and 119 “No” votes.

The race for Surrey Campus Representative was highly contested this year, with five candidates looking to represent their fellow students. Gurpreet Singh Sabharwal was elected with 364 votes, replacing outgoing Surrey Rep. Tanvir Singh, who is currently the KSA’s President and VP University Affairs. The other candidates were Akashdeep Bhullar, who received 242 votes, Francis Gloriani, who received 90 votes, Anshul Grover, who received 72 votes, and Vaibhav Agarwal, who received 52 votes.

Finally, for Constituency Representatives, the only contested positions were those for Mature Students Rep. and International Students Rep. Jasika Rai was elected to represent mature students with 417 votes—the most votes earned by any one candidate in this election—defeating Murdoch de Mooy, who received 152 votes.

Shivam Kataria will represent international students on KSA Council next term, having received 365 votes. The runners-up—Nevneen Samra and Monga Sanju—received 211 and 192 votes, respectively.

Running for Aboriginal Students Representative, Sarah Strachan was elected with 404 votes for her candidacy and 118 votes against. All of the remaining candidates for Constituency Representatives were running unopposed for positions that they currently hold. Joseph Thorpe was re-elected as Queer Students Representative with 381 “Yes” votes and 138 “No” votes, Munir-Khalid Dossa was re-elected as Student of Colour Representative with 349 “Yes” votes and 169 “No” votes, and Caitlin McCutchen, who is currently the KSA’s VP External, will once again represent female-identifying students at KPU, having received 403 “Yes” votes and 124 “No” votes.

Despite these results, eight positions will remain empty on Council in the coming term. In addition to two unfilled Business Representative seats, there will be no one representing students on the Cloverdale campus, students with disabilities, or students in the faculties of Health, Design, Trades and Technology, or Academic and Career Advancement. To help fill these positions, the KSA is expected to run a by-election in the fall semester.