At least four new directors will be elected when the UNA holds its election for its board of directors in November.
Current board chair Richard Watson and director Murray McCutcheon will be ineligible to run again due to UNA’s term limits.
With Watson ineligible to run, the UNA will have a new board chair for the first time in half a decade.
The elections will also fill a void left after the resignations of Ali Mojdehi in July 2023 and Jane Kang, who left the UNA earlier this year.
The most recent election was held in November 2021.
The deadline for candidate nominations is Oct. 4, and nominees will require at least five other residents to support their nominations.
The election will run from Nov. 4 to Nov. 26.
Directors will not be elected by a simple first-past-the-post system where the top seven candidates with the most votes are elected. Instead, if one of the campus neighbourhoods ends up with more than three elected directors, priority will be given to candidates from other neighbourhoods to make sure there is a diversity of representation.
The election will mark the first time the UNA uses an electronic voting platform developed by Montreal-based Simply Voting, marking a change from the previous paper ballots.
In an interview with The Campus Resident, Chris Hakim, the UNA’s corporate services specialist, expressed confidence in the security of the electronic voting system and said the availability of different languages would help make the election more accessible to residents.
The UNA has budgeted $25,000 for the election, including the electronic voting system and promotional materials.
Hakim said that the UNA expects voter turnout to increase this election due to the rollout of the new online system alongside efforts to boost engagement with the release of an online guidebook for new residents and a newsletter.
DANIEL LI IS A GRADE 11 STUDENT PASSIONATE ABOUT POLITICS AND JOURNALISM.