Fiery Fallon is new Guild president

NEW President of the guild of students at UWI’s St Augustine campus is Fallon Lutchmansingh, the fiery secretary who had accused outgoing president Glenn Ramadharsingh of financial impropriety. She won Thursday’s guild elections by more than 900 votes. Her closest rival was Rodney Jaglal. The other contenders for the presidential post were Ravi Ratiram and Vijay Bhagwat. It is the second time a woman is leading the guild. The results were expected to be officially declared late yesterday by returning officer Anthony Jackman. The other winners were vice president, Keron Niles, secretary Calixte George and treasurer Stewart Howard. A total of 14 posts were contested by 38 candidates.

When Newsday visited the campus, several students were unaware of the results as they were not yet posted on the notice boards. Those informed of the results expressed a mixed response to Lutchmansingh’s victory. Some wished her the best while others were not pleased, saying there was voter padding. Some persons expressed concern about voting being extended 15 minutes after the 8 pm deadline, but Jackman said that was as a result of a power outage during the day, during which time voting had to be suspended. There were also unconfirmed reports that Ratiram was challenging the results. But up to 2.30 pm,  nothing was given to Jackman informing him of such action.

Ratiram promised to speak to Newsday “later.” Bhagwat said he had no problem with the results and Jaglal offered his personal congratulations to Lutchmansingh. When Newsday caught up with Lutchmansingh, a final year biochemistry student, she had just completed an exam. She said she was definitely pleased to have been elected the new president and was glad it was over, since “my name was dragged in the mud for the last month.” She pointed out that there was a smear campaign against most of the candidates, but she believed that students were thinking and were moving away from race voting. She said it was also good that the margin of victory was not by the usual 20-something, but by hundreds. And she knew it wasn’t all her friends voting, “because I don’t think I have that amount of friends on campus, they were supporters.”

Lutchmansingh said during her tenure she will focus on constitutional reform, as well as clearing up the bills from the previous council and publishing the results of the audit, which is currently being conducted by auditing firm KPMG. She said hopefully by the end of the term students would see that her stewardship was not about self gain, but about the student population. Ramadharsingh said he was “all for the democratic process and if the results are declared in her favour I have no problems accepting it.” He was, however, concerned that the elections were held on Thursday, instead of Tuesday. He said students in the Social Sciences faculty usually leave campus on Wednesday. The new council is expected to meet informally next week before being fully installed in office.