Chukky Ibe is your MSU president-elect
Chukky Ibe has been elected McMaster Students Union president for the 2017-18 term. He finished with 4878 votes and Shaarujaa Nadarajah finished second with 3169. McMaster had a voter turnout of 41.6 per cent.
Ibe ran on an expansive platform with eight pillars and over 20 different projects on his website. He will take office in May 2017 and current MSU president Justin Monaco-Barnes will help transition him into the role.
The Elections Committee released the results at 3:42 a.m., a relatively late announcement. Last year's election results were released around 4 a.m. and one candidate was disqualified. It is not immediately known why it took so long to get the results.
This year saw a slight dip in voter turnout after three straight record-breaking years. 2016 saw a voter turnout of 44.5 per cent and 2015 saw 42.2 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. 2014’s voter turnout was 40.5 per cent. As the MSU press release notes, this marks five consecutive years of more than 40 per cent of students voting in presidential elections. This figure is among the best in the country for schools of this size.
Referenda results
Students voted no to the expansion to the Pulse and the creation of a student activity building, though it was a close vote. Option C -- the option with no changes -- won by 10 votes in the second round.
The student bus pass will remain the same as well. Full results can be found here.
The course syllabus repository stance passed with 96.2 per cent of the vote.