Nominations for MUNSU’s upcoming by-election are now open and will close on October 2nd at 12:00 p.m. Voting will begin on October 21st at 9:00 a.m. and will continue until October 22nd at 9:00 p.m.
17 positions are up for contest, however, there will be no by-election for the position of Executive Director of Campaigns because the current board is considering eliminating the position.
The by-election comes after the general election during the Winter semester left a number of vacancies, two of which stem from election expulsions.
Possible elimination of Executive Director of Campaigns position
Executive Director of External Affairs Taqi Yeasir told The Muse that “the board members currently on the board are thinking of eliminating the campaign position.” Yeasir mentioned that there have been talks about the position’s roles and duties throughout the year, as well as other positions that could be added.
According to Yeasir, the Director of Campaigns usually only handles the Day of Action in the Fall, and Black History Month in the winter. MUNSU plans to “eliminate that position for this election and think of something different for the upcoming elections.”
When asked about their other campaigns, such as Free Palestine, and how their concerns may be year-round, Yeasir explained that due to the training time for new directors, it’s hard to orchestrate year-round campaigns: “It’s January by the time the person gets trained. After January, we are already having an election in February or March for the next general meeting. So it’s not a long time for a Campaign Director to work.”
Lack of student involvement
Among the numerous vacancies, there were also 12 positions that ran uncontested in the general election.
To Yeasir, the lack of student involvement is somewhat inherent to the positions. “All the directors of the board are students, and some are engineering and pharmacy positions, so they have to go to classes every day… So, committing your time to this gets a little bit harder.”
As for the upcoming by-election, Yeasir believes that MUNSU is doing a “good promotion” to get more students involved, attributing some of this work to Chief Returning Officer Russell Waye, who’s “been very active about it.”
The by-election was officially announced on MUNSU’s Instagram on Thursday, September 17th, despite nominations having been open since Monday, September 14th.
However, Yeasir says that students didn’t wait for any announcements. “They came to the office, and we just printed off the nomination paper…Yes, we were late a little bit, but it was the weekend…We are on time.”
Yeasir believes that this by-election will be different from the Winter General Election, stating that election promotion “is better than what we did last time, and students are showing interest. I believe that it will be a good election.”
General election expulsions and by-election changes
In an Elections Committee meeting on April 9th, 2026, members voted to expel four candidates for violating election campaign rules, specifically slating and improper postering.
Of the four, two expulsions led to vacancies for the positions of Centre of Nursing Studies Rep and External Director of Campaigns.
Plans have been made to limit potential expulsions this go-around. “Instead of having one large [election campaign rules] session for candidates, we’re going to do them by appointment,” says Waye. Getting people one-on-one can “make it more personable when we go through the rules, and really hammer in [the] consequences for breaking them.”
In the event that there are vacancies after the nomination deadline, “an extended nomination period until October 9th” will go into effect. In such a case, MUNSU will “pursue advertising whichever vacancies those are.”
If there are still no nominations, interim positions will “only be accepted after the election ends. If, for example, the music rep isn’t filled after October 22nd, a music student, if they seek to fill that position, could do it just by getting signatures.”
The positions up for contest this election are:
- Humanities & Social Science Representatives (x3)
- Pharmacy Rep
- Medicine Rep
- Business Rep
- Centre for Nursing Studies Rep
- Human Kinetics & Recreation Rep
- Music Rep
- Engineering Group A Rep
- Paton College Rep
- MacPherson College Rep
- Burton’s Pond Rep
- Indigenous Student’s Rep
- Trans Student’s Rep
- Queer Student’s Rep
- Students of Colour Rep
More information about the upcoming by-election and how students can get involved can be found here.