News Brief: The preliminary results of the 2024 KSA general election are in
The results of the 2024 KSA General Election were published on Feb. 21. (Austin Kelly)
On Feb. 21, the Kwantlen Student Association released the preliminary results of the 2024 General Election which showed 22 student representatives have been elected into council.
Voting took place in-person across all Kwantlen Polytechnic University campuses on Feb. 13, 14, and 15. The election results are certified by Simply Voting, an online election system, and found 1,367 out of 19,765 electors voted in this election, or 6.9 per cent of KPU students. On the voting ballot, it was recommended students only vote for candidates in categories they are a part of or identify with.
Elected students will take their seats on council for the 2024-25 term, which starts on April 1 and will end on March 31, 2025. Results are not final until presented to the current council by the chief returning officer (CRO).
Beginning with the campus representative positions, Abhijeet Singh was voted in as Civic Plaza Campus Representative with 321 votes. Four candidates ran for this position and 408 students abstained from voting in this category. For the Cloverdale Campus Representative, three candidates ran for this position and 549 students abstained from voting. Yashanpreet Guron was voted in with 402 votes.
Vice President Student Life Jashanpreet Sekhon was re-elected as Langley Campus Representative with 494 votes. He was one out of two candidates running for the position and 448 students abstained from voting. Three candidates ran for the Richmond Campus Representative position, which 431 students abstained from voting in, and Nitin Aggarwal was voted with 364 votes. Aggarwal is a current business representative.
Simranjeet Singh was voted as Surrey Campus Representative with 372 votes. Five candidates ran for this position in which 319 students abstained from voting in.
In terms of constituency representative results, Paramvir Singh Johal was voted as International Students Representative. Johal was one of two candidates running for the position and won by 62 per cent, or 549 votes. Three candidates ran for Mature Students Representative and Jaskaran Sohal was voted in with 355 votes while 619 students abstained from voting.
Arnav was voted as Queer Students Representative with 331 votes. Two candidates ran for this position and Arnav won by 54.7 per cent while 762 students abstained from voting. As for Students of Colour Representative, two candidates also ran for this position and 556 students abstained from voting. Ishant Goyal won by 61.3 per cent, or 497 votes.
Lesli Sangha was the only candidate who ran for Students with Disabilities Representative and so voting took to a yes or no poll. Sangha was voted into the position with 373 yes votes and 250 no votes, while 744 students abstained from voting. Suhana Gill was voted as Women’s Representative with 382 votes. Three candidates ran for this position while 477 students abstained from voting.
For faculty representatives, there are three positions available for Arts Representative. Nine candidates ran for this position, and Yugveer Gill with 109 votes, Jasmine Kochhar with 74 votes, and Dishika Gour with 67 votes. Gill and Kochhar are both current Arts Representatives.
There are five positions available for Business Representative, and 20 candidates ran for the positions. Simranjot Sekhon with 225 votes, Yuvraj Bains with 203 votes, Nishant Kapoor with 187 votes, Keerat Goyal with 149 votes, and Pala with 143 votes were voted in while 108 students abstained from voting.
Levi Okrah was voted as the Design Representative. Okrah was the only candidate who ran for this position so voting took to a yes or no poll in which five students voted yes and there were no votes for no. Two students abstained from voting.
There are two positions available for the Science and Horticulture Representative which six candidates ran for. Bhoomika Seera with 58 votes and Ranveer Singh with 34 votes were elected. Thirty-two students abstained from voting.
No candidates ran for Indigenous Students, Academic and Career Advancement, Community and Health Science, and Trades and Technology representative positions.
There were no disqualifications publicly listed in this year’s election which differs from past KSA elections. Last year, 19 candidates were disqualified for voting coercion, intimidation, slating, and the use of a QR code, and in 2022, three out of the eight candidates who ran were disqualified.
For more information about election results, visit kusa.ca/elections/.
