Caroline Bourbonnière next ASFA president

Future ASFA President Caroline Bourbonniere. Photo by Navneet Pall.
Future ASFA President Caroline Bourbonniere. Photo by Navneet Pall.

The official results of the Arts and Science Federation of Associations’ elections have been released, with Caroline Bourbonnière coming in first for the presidency.

“I am absolutely ecstatic about the results and am appreciative of the support I received,” said Bourbonnière. “This amazing voter turnout was a pleasant surprise considering it was the second time around.”

The elections had originally been scheduled to take place from Feb. 15-17, but were continuously pushed by ASFA’s executive for reasons including the sudden resignation of chief electoral officer Chris Webster and technical difficulties at some polling stations.

The dates finally agreed upon by the executive were March 5-7, a decision that went against ASFA’s own bylaws, which stipulate that ASFA elections cannot take place during the Concordia Student Union’s campaign period. But ASFA President Alex Gordon indicated at the time that it was imperative to move forward regardless. The postponement of dates cost ASFA an extra $2,000 to run this year’s general election, with most of the money going to pay polling officers.

Over 500 students voted in the second round of polling, which concluded last Wednesday. Three of the positions, president, VP academic and Loyola, and VP social, had to be recounted because of the closeness of the vote. The VP social position was decided by a mere six votes.

Bourbonnière said that she is looking forward to next year’s challenges and “can’t wait to get started with [her] new executive team.”

Charlie Brenchley, current ASFA councillor and Bourbonnière’s opponent for the presidency, commented that it was “a very close race.”

“Democracy spoke,” said Brenchley. “I wish my opponent the best of luck.”

At ASFA’s March 8 council meeting, the judicial committee reported on their decision not to accept the appeal of candidate Eric Moses Gashirabake, who was docked 65 votes and fined by the JC for switching candidacies from VP academic and Loyola to VP internal at the beginning of the race. The JC had formed an adjudicating panel to discuss whether or not new evidence would change the outcome of the case. They agreed it would not.

Later on in the meeting, ASFA President Alex Gordon touched on the topic of hiring a new CEO. Considering that ASFA’s last two CEOs stepped down unexpectedly, Gordon addressed the hiring committee, saying they may need to look at creating a better hiring process for the future.

Official results:

President:
Caroline Bourbonnière- 326
Charlie Brenchley – 280
Abstentions – 77

VP academic and Loyola:
Eric Moses Gashirabake – 265
Jeansil Bruyère – 242
Abstentions – 124

VP social:
Maddy Griffin – 268
Terrence Adams – 262
Abstentions – 50

VP communications:
Nick Santella – 473
No – 24
Abstentions – 165

VP internal:
Veryan Goodship – 474
No – 35
Abstentions – 130

VP finance:
Rachel Feldman – 481
No – 27
Abstentions – 175

VP external:
Carlotta Longo – 313
Olivia Taddio – 223
Abstentions – 150

Independent councillors (two positions):
Justin Occhionero – 365
Abstentions – 201

Sean Nolan – 371
Abstentions – 206

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