Students elect new MSU president

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Piribauer_Tommy.jpg” caption=”Tommy Piribauer”]Tommy Piribauer will be president of the McMaster Students Union for 2005-2006. Piribauer won the race on the six ballot of preferential voting with a total of 1,719 votes.

Piribauer is the current vice-president administration with the McMaster Students Union. His involvement with the MSU has spanned his university career as he spent three years as executive editor of the Marmor prior to becoming vice-president administration.

The McMaster Students Union represents more than 15,000 undergraduate students at McMaster University.

“Ours was a presidential race where the issues took centre stage. I thank the members of my team who spent countless hours getting the issues out. It was a team effort through and through,” says Piribauer. “I thank my fellow candidates, whose honesty and integrity throughout the process made for a positive election based on issues. Most notably, I thank the students, whose questions, comments, and sheer interest in the process made the election a rewarding experience in and of itself.”

Preferential voting allows voters to rank the candidates. A candidate wins when they have 50 per cent plus one vote. If that percentage is not reached in the first ballot, the ballots from the candidate with the lowest amount of number one rankings are redistributed to the other candidates according to the second place votes. This continues until a candidate reaches the 50 per cent plus one mark.

The final totals for all seven candidates were:

Derek Kropman: 997

Adam Masterson: 30

Mehul Patel: 476

Tommy Piribauer: 1,719

John Popham: 686

Shehryar Qureshy: 182

John Vraets: 207

A total of 3,299 students voted in the MSU presidential election.