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The (Toronto Metropolitan University Students’ Union) TMSU elections are postponed with no indication as to when voting will actually start, according to a statement published on the TMSU website yesterday. The voting period was supposed to start today and end on Wednesday.
As previously published in OTR, the fact that an election was imminent was not publicized on social media.
Aasim Ul Haq Khwaja is a first-year Business Technology Management student who is running for president with “Team Reform Now.” He said that candidates were only made aware of the postponement via email late last night. “We were just told that the voting is not happening due to whatever reasons. What are the reasons?” He said. “No one knows the reasons. I’m not saying it certainly means something, but the students deserve to know.”
In the statement, the Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC) wrote that this decision was made due to “circumstances beyond TMSU’s control.” They said the ERC were only recently notified that “the online voting platform traditionally used in TMSU elections [would] not be available this year,” and are working on an alternative voting process with the University. Until a new “reliable” online platform is ready, the voting period will be postponed. According to the by-law 8.2.1 in the TMSU By-laws, the 2025 election must occur between Feb. 1 and March 31.
This statement can be found on their website on the “Elections” page, under the headline, “Important Notice.” The TMSU also posted a link to this page on their Instagram story today with the caption, “Announcement regarding the 2025 elections.” However, the banner at the top of their website still reads, “TMSU General Elections: Nominations will start from February 3, 2025. More details will be shared in the coming days. For any questions, please click this message to reach an elections staff member.”
Ul Haq Khwaja said that there are many issues with the entire election process, including a lack of transparency and miscommunication. “Students didn’t even know the elections [were] happening. No one ever saw an email or an Instagram post asking students to fill their nomination forms,” he said. “No one knew when the nomination [period started]. It was there on the website. But who’s going to check the website? You need to notify them.”
The TMSU did send out an email informing students of the nomination period. As previously reported by OTR, it was a brief statement in a Jan. 19 newsletter under two large visual promos for the TMSU Montreal Reading Week trip and the Latin Pub Night. At the time of publication, the TMSU also failed to provide proper notice about the election through their social media platforms, which breaks by-law 4.2.1 in their Elections Procedure Code. The day after publication, TMSU posted a graphic on Instagram with the text, “TMSU ELECTIONS Check out our website for more details.” The caption reads, “Gentle reminder if you haven’t kept up with our newsletter or website! Our newsletter is a great way to find out about events, initiatives, job opportunities, and much more! Check out our website for more details !”
According to Ul Haq Khwaja, there was a debate and a candidates forum planned for last week. Both events were also postponed. “There’s a loss of trust in the Students Union. It can lead to a loss of trust in the whole election procedure, and when that happens, it can mean a lot of dangerous stuff,” he said.
The campaign period was paused, effective 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 23. All physical campaign materials on campus must be removed by 6 p.m. tomorrow. All the Instagram accounts for the slates that OTR was able to find have already been cleared, no longer showing any posts or a profile picture. The bio for Team Transparency states, “Voting Period POSTPONED till further notice.”
OTR reached out to Central Communications for more details on the new voting process. They replied, “Please reach out to the TMSU directly to facilitate your request.” As of the publication of this article, the TMSU has not responded to our request for more details.
Reporter, On The Record , Winter 2025.
