The University of Regina Student’s Union held its 2021 General Election this past week. Like every other election worldwide, the pandemic has moved the campaign process online. While some people are missing the face-to-face interaction with candidates, others prefer the online strategy.

“I liked the online campaigning,” said Destiny Brown, a third-year Secondary Education student. “It almost felt better to have it this way, but it could just be that I’m an introvert and didn’t like when people would campaign around the University.”

“Many candidates set up their Facebook page or Instagram page for their campaign,” said Ziyang “Zeo” Li is a third-year psychology student and the re-elected Vice President of Student Affairs for URSU.

One candidate, Amir Said who ran for President, took his social media pages to another level — which resulted in him being disqualified from the election.

According to the Chief Returning Officer’s Report, released March 19, Said used the social media platforms of organizations he was a part of to further advertise his campaign without the consent of the organization.

Along with being disqualified from the election, he was also removed from the English Student’s Association.

Other candidates had more success online.

“I’ve barely campaigned on social media before,” Li said. “But it’s pretty fun to set up a target group or demographic for the group I need.”

He recalls what his campaign was like last season with having to set up tables in Riddell, buying coffee and regularly interacting with students.

According to Li, this year’s campaign was similar, except everything had to be virtual.

Candidates made posts to draw student’s attention towards their campaign and inform students on what they plan to bring to URSU if elected.

Li made these posts, had a radio campaign and even shot a campaign video that was shared on his social media page.

 Another difference is the candidates were able to campaign during the two-day voting period. This usually isn’t allowed.

“This year, there [aren’t a lot of] restrictions over that because…it’s very hard to engage with students over social media rather than in-person,” said Li.

According to URSU’s website, a total of 942 votes were cast for URSU President minus abstained votes. The winner with 552 votes was Hannah Tait.

The Chief Returning Officer’s Report regarding the 2021 URSU General Election noted it as a 2.88% decrease in voter turnout from previous elections.

“I think that if there were less people this year who voted, it would likely be because they couldn’t find information on candidates or because it’s harder to get to know the candidates through a screen,” said Brown.

 This result was not a surprise to Li.

“We lost the personal engagement on campus,” said Li.

He feels the face-to-face connections are “one of the essential parts” of any election campaign.

The lower voter turnout will have no effect on newly elected URSU candidates’ plan moving forward.

They plan on creating the URSU Garden which will provide fresh produce for the URSU Cares pantry for students struggling with food insecurity.

They also plan to improve the mental health program as “it’s not very engaging or approachable to students,” according to Li. They plan to do this by enlisting the help of active student groups familiar in mental health field, like the Psychology Students Association and the Social Work Student’s Society.

The UPass program will also be adjusted to better suit students that still use it, at a more affordable rate.