TMSU Election Campaign Reflects Low Student Engagement

53

Listen to the whole story here:

The Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU) is aiming to regain the trust of the undergraduate student body after the past two executive elections were annulled due to “significant” rule violations. Candidates running in this general election are campaigning for a better students’ union and students have the chance to vote for them next week. 

But many appear not to be interested.

There are no elected members on the executive branch that has overseen the TMSU since the last election in the fall was declared null and void by the chief returning officer (CRO), who oversees elections and enforces election by-laws, due to a many complaints about candidates campaigning outside the allotted period and coercing students to vote. 

The union launched a $20-million civil lawsuit in late February alleging election interference, fraud and breach of contract, among other claims. The statement of claim obtained by OTR alleges that the defendants worked, once elected, to get financial gain from contracts with the union. None of the allegations have been proven in court, and a statement of defence has not yet been filed. 

Voting for the 2026-2027 term is scheduled from March 16 to 18. OTR attended the first two hours of the general elections candidates’ forum on Wednesday to speak to candidates and students about the election cycle so far. 

The forum, hosted by CRO Ghallia Hashem and streamed live on Instagram, was an opportunity to hear from official candidates — but only two showed up. No other students attended.

New election, new procedures

The union has made major changes to its Elections and Procedure Code (EPC) to avoid another cancelled election, TMSU interim co-executive director Scott Miller Berry said in an interview.

The new rules include “prohibiting anonymous campaigning, requiring all volunteers to be registered in advance, prohibiting former or current board members from serving as campaign managers and prohibiting campaigning during the voting period, among other changes,” Miller Berry said. 

Team Justice is one of the slates running for the executive positions this election. Its candidates,  Zain Baig, Polly Yang, Ahmmad Haidary, Megan Morgan and Teresa Baricevic, are no strangers to the election cycle as they ran in the cancelled fall by-election. 

Two of their members were the only candidates to attend the forum during the first two hours, though six candidates confirmed by TMSU were invited during the time slot. 15 candidates in total are running in the election.

One of them was Baricevic, a fifth-year marketing student, who is running for vice president of education. She has been talking with students across campus to spread her campaign message. This has produced mixed reactions from students. 

“Some are really responsive,” Baricevic said, while there are “a lot of other students that are in their last year, and they’re just like, ‘well my vote won’t matter and it won’t do anything.’”

All of the candidates running for the executive positions and board of directors are posted on TMSU’s website. Friday is the last day for candidates to make their final pitch to students to vote for them.

Baig, Team Justice’s presidential candidate, said he believes a successful election this time around lies in the hands of the students. 

“If more students just go out and vote, things will be more fair,” said Baig, who is a fifth-year business technology management student. 

“The voter turnout…was extremely low,” he said. “That’s why bad actors were able to solicit illegal votes, to outnumber the students that do vote. Hopefully, more students will go out and vote, because they need to voice their concerns and stand up for what they believe in.”

OtterAI was used in the production of this article.