Day one after the announcement of candidates, and rumor has it

(and by ‘rumor’ I mean verifiable evidence plus the natural supposition that of course elections officials are in Panic Epic Work Mode at the moment)

that Chief Elections Officer & CEO of Our Hearts Isabel Ferreras has spent her morning off and on the phone to her staff.  Certainly we’ve already seen three—three!—BoG candidates drop out.  Goodbye, Peter Stein, AJ Hajir Hajian, and Nader Beyzaei—we hardly knew ye.

We’ve got the complete list for you after the break, but first, let’s take a little walk down quelle scandale potentiale lane, y’all.

The buzz at beer last night and brunch this morning was triplefold—quadruple if you count the cheap Gallery pitchers—but it boils down to this:

1. Blake Frederick.  It’s been too easy lately to forget that our BF came into office as something of a golden boy, hailed by supporters and detractors alike both for his passionate commitment and political credentials.
   

   Happier times.  (Photo: Gerald Deo)

   And despite—or perhaps because of—the shitshow that’s marked his end of term, Frederick hasn’t given up the political life.  He’s thrown his hat into, in fact, three races—not only the usual Senate/BoG pairing, but also the Ubyssey’s Board of Directors.  This last is interesting considering that Frederick & our beloved campus publication are not what you’d call the best of friends.  There have been scathing editorials all round and a rather sudden crackdown on AMS communications policy getting in the way of good relations.  With all that history, one wonders what the Ubyssey Board could look like at this time next year—assuming, of course, that Frederick doesn’t disqualify himself by winning another race.

2. The positions of interest. Although it’s not unusual to see BoG, Senate, and VP External attract a few more competitors than other positions, this year’s International Student Rep hopefuls are almost frighteningly numerous.  You guys know this position is non-voting, right?  (And Star, you know you submitted all materials without a last name, right? you do know? and it’s a thing? oh. cool.)  It’s also heartening to see two relative unknowns rounding out the Presidential nominees, although it makes hunting for pictures a heckuva lot harder.  Don’t even ask me about typing the tags up for this post.  RIDICULOUS.
   

   YOU SEE HOW I SUFFER FOR YOU

3. The Elections Committee’s (presumed) accountability screed. One of the new features this year will be a PENALTY BOX on the Elections official website.  Isabel Ferreras is a formidable woman, as seen here:
   

   cower, puny candidates!! leg-biting will be penalized!

   and we have no doubt that she won’t hesitate to use this box, which purpose is to daily—publicly!—keep the voting public very aware of any and all “warnings, violations, infractions and penalties.” It’s a move we here at Fuzzy Kitten Unicorn Scandal are looking forward to a little too much, frankly.

BUT WHO ELSE is out there? here are the people we’ll be stalking bothering in the name of Fair Game Media Coverage for the next month:

President

• Bijan Ahmadian
• Sean Kim
• Pak Ho Leung (+warning)
• Natalie Swift

VP Academic and University Affairs

• Ben Cappellacci
• Rodrigo Ferrari(-)Nunes (B.A., UBC; M.A., UBC)

VP Finance

• The Invisible Man
• Elin Tayyar

VP Administration

• Ekat Dovjenko
• Michael Haack

VP External

• Timothy Chu
• Aaron Palm
• Jeremy McElroy
• Stas Pavlov

International Student Representative

• Se Won An
• Xena Sofia Hinson
• Charlott(e?) Sandor Johnson
• Ding Kun
• Brittany Perna
• Star
• Guessy Wang

Senate

• Syed Nayef Andrabi
• Ryan Bredin
• Philip Edgcumbe
• Blake Frederick
• Arielle Friedman
• AJ Hajir Hajian
• Sean Heisler
• Alyssa Koehn
• Blair McRadu
• Joël Mertens
• Spencer Rasmussen
• Johannes Rebane
• Aminollah Sabzevari
• Miriam Sabzevari
• Gary Tse

Board of Governors

• Bijan Ahmadian
• Nader Beyzaei
• Philip Edgcumbe
• Blake Frederick
• AJ Hajir Hajian
• Sean Heisler
• Guillaume Houle
• Peter Stein
• Azim Wazeer

Student Legal Fund Society (6)

• Siavash Ahmadi
• Omid Atai
• Anthony Bryson (Students for Responsible Leadership)
• Paul J Godin (Students for Responsible Leadership)
• Aaron Sihota (Students for Responsible Leadership)
• JJ Maclean (Students for Responsible Leadership)
• Alexander Shalashnly (Students for Responsible Leadership)
• Hillson Tse (Students for Responsible Leadership)
• Kyle Warwick

Ubyssey Publications Society Board of Directors

• Campbell Bryson (running unopposed for chair/president/lead position)
• Neil Andrews
• Oliver Thorne
• Sandy Buchanan
• Imran Habib
• Blake Frederick