The results are in: the Yellow team won the UTMSU election.
In a meeting that took place Monday afternoon, Vickita Bhatt, presidential candidate for this team, went from having 67 demerit points to having 30 demerit points (normally, 35 are enough for a candidate to be disqualified). Henry Ssali, presidential candidate for the Blue team, had 36 demerit points but saw them lowered to 26. (See our graph on page 1 for demerit point results for all candidates.)
To be sure, all candidates who had demerit points are now in the clear. This will allow Ms. Bhatt to assume the presidency.
News of this decision left me with bitter taste. I now question the purpose of demerit points, when they can be so easily waived. I wonder if students knew everything they should have known when they cast their ballot. I wonder what they will think now.
I could fill pages with my opinion. But that would only take space away from the students who want their voices heard. After Andrew Hamilton-Smith, former Medium news editor, posted a provocative post on Facebook that triggered a passionate discussion, he sent us a condensed version thereof to be published as a Letter to the Editor. Ms. Bhatt also sent a letter, although she did not allude to any of the issues above. Lastly, Yogan Sivanatan wrote about what students should do if they feel unhappy with the results of today’s meeting as well as the election itself.
Please note that these Letters to the Editor were written before today’s meeting.
