Following a repeated election for student senator-at-large, Zarifa Nawar, Kareem Hassib, Ananya Gupta, Solomon Yi-Kieran and Drédyn Fontana won the five seats for the upcoming year.
A total of 1,953 ballots were cast, equivalent to a voter turnout rate of 3.3 per cent. This marks a downturn from 17.6 per cent turnout of the previous AMS General election held this March.
Nawar, Hassib, Gupta and Yi-Kieran were all elected to the senate during the previous general election Jasper Lorien, who was previously elected as a senator-at-large, ran in this race before later withdrawing. According to a written statement from Senate & Curriculum Services, Lorien will sit as a senator for the Faculty of Arts “as a result of a decision made in another Senate election” and Fontana, who came in sixth place, will take this seat.
Fontana ran unsuccessfully for both the AMS presidency and a student senator-at-large seat during the spring elections. On the ballot, his name was listed for both races with an asterisk, accompanied by an annotation that advised voters he was “removed from Office.”
AMS Code states that “if a candidate has been recalled or removed from an AMS Executive office, that fact shall be indicated on the ballot.” However, Fontana was removed from his position as an AMS executive, not as a senator.
“Due to the inclusion of inappropriate text on the previous ballot, the University Registrar has assumed the conduct of elections to the Vancouver Senate and is re-doing polls in this election. These polls supersede those conducted 7-14 March 2025 by AMS Elections,” the university wrote in a May 2 email to eligible voters.
In November 2024, Fontana was removed as VP academic and university affairs (AUA) by AMS Council, following a inquiry into his performance. Fontana has disputed the legitimacy of his termination, suggesting that he was reviewed and removed out of retaliation for concerns he raised about former AMS President Christian 'CK' Kyle’s performance.
On May 7, Fontana initiated legal action against the AMS for wrongful termination, seeking over $30,000 in severance pay and aggravated damages.
In addition to VP AUA, Fontana previously served as the applied sciences student representative to the Senate during the past academic year.
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