Students' Union Elections

What happens after a student election if some of the seats remain empty? The UASU's Bylaws and Regulation contain a process called a vacancy petition.

The rules for vacancy petitions can be found in Regulation 110.06: Students' Council and GFC Replenishment. The regulation lays out the documents you would need to file, the deadlines and timelines involved, and everything else necessary to putting your name forward to fill a vacancy. If you have any questions or need to make alternative arrangements that comply with Regulation 110.06, please contact the Chief Returning Officer at cro@su.ualberta.ca

CURRENT VACANCIES AS OF MAY 2023

• Students' Council vacancies: ALES (1), Business (1), Engineering (1), KSR (1), Native Studies (1), Open Studies (1), Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (1). Student faculty representative positions are currently 65% full.
• GFC student caucus vacancies: ALES (2), Arts (3), Business (3), Education (3), Engineering (3), KSR (1), Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (1), Science (4). Student faculty representative positions are currently 51% full.

FORMS

The Chief Returning Officer's vacancy petitions form is found here. To complete the form, you will need to fill out and upload three short PDF documents:

• The Candidacy Declaration
• The Eligibility Letter
• The Nomination Form (signatures list)

These can be filled out via scanned hard copy or by using PDF 'fill and sign' tools.

TIMELINE

As detailed in Regulation 110.06, vacancy petitions can be filed at almost any point between elections. For the 2023/24 academic year, this means that vacancy petitions to fill Council and/or GFC vacancies until the Fall by-election can technically be filed anytime up to September 16, 2023. However, since the by-elections take place in late September, filing a vacancy petition so late might make someone a Councilor for a matter of days, if at all. It is strongly recommended to file vacancy petitions as early as possible over the summer.

After the by-election, if there are any student vacancies on Council or GFC, vacancy petitions will be accepted starting almost immediately (likely October 1, 2023) until February 1, 2024. Again, anyone interested in filling these vacancies should file as soon as possible to ensure they can have meaningful time in office, should they succeed. Vacancy petitions will reopen after the elections (likely April 3, 2024).

In extremely simplified terms, as an overview of the year, vacancy petitions can be filed from April through early September, and from October through January.

ACTIVE VACANCY PETITIONS

According to Regulation 110.06 section 03, receiving a vacancy petition triggers a seven-day window for other petitions for seats in the same faculty and governance body. The regulation has a process for how to handle multiple petitions for the same seat if received during that window. This web page will track any active vacancy petitions and the associated deadlines.

ACTIVE VACANCY PETITION	FACULTY	GOVERNANCE BODY	DATE RECEIVED	WINDOW ENDS
None at this time	---	---	---	---

Phone

780-492-4241

Email
cro@su.ualberta.ca

Students' Union Elections Office
Room 0-68 B
Students' Union Building
University of Alberta
8900 - 114 Street NW
Edmonton, AB
T6G 2J7