The Daily Publications Society’s (DPS) existence was ensured for another five years when it won its referendum by a resounding 76 per cent last Thursday.
A ‘Yes’ vote for the DPS means that the society is able to renew its Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the University – which dictates distribution on campus – as well as continue collecting student fees, which account for half of the DPS’s total budget.
Since 2003, the University has required independent student groups on campus such as CKUT, QPIRG, and the DPS – which publishes both The Daily and Le Délit – to hold existence referenda every five years as an indication of student support.
Voting began on January 23 with a hiccup when all 27,606 electors were sent a defective email ballot. Within an hour, DPS Chief Electoral Officer Faraz Alidina had received over 150 emails alerting him to the problem.
“I doubt it affected turnout,” he told The Daily. A corrected ballot was immediately sent out, he explained, and reminder emails were sent out to electors who had not yet voted the following Saturday and Tuesday.
Quorum was met within a few hours on the first day of voting. Ultimately, voter turnout totalled 18.8 per cent, with 5,202 votes cast.
The DPS received similar results in its last existence referendum five years ago, when 80 per cent of the 5,729 votes cast returned a ‘Yes’ vote.