On Feb. 24, Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) of McGill University Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Colby Briggs announced that Yony Bresler had been elected as the PGSS interim secretary-general. Bresler, who assumed the role on Mar. 2, won with 55 per cent of the vote. Fellow candidate Saturnin Ndandala acquired 15.5 per cent of the vote. 29 per cent of voters voted ‘no opinion’ in the election,  with 974 students voting in total.

Bresler spoke about his goals moving forward, highlighting the need to improve transparency and his dedication to anti-austerity measures in response to budget cuts passed by the Quebec government last year.

“My goals are to work with the current team to help them achieve their goals in their respective portfolios […] taking steps to increase the transparency between the various governing bodies of PGSS and […] the members at large, and to represent graduate student interests broadly—in particular in relation to the planned austerity measures,” he said.

Bresler continued to explain that PGSS would be overseeing a working group against austerity, which was created in the organization’s joint council with the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) on Feb. 23. The group aims to mobilize the McGill community against austerity measures. 

According to Briggs, a contestation—a formal procedure which constests the validity the electoral results—was presented against one of the candidates during the contestation period, which ran from Feb. 25 to March 1. Briggs stated, however, the contestation would not likely affect Bresler’s win. 

“The current open contestation concerns the claimed background and experiences of one or both of the candidates,” Briggs said. “This being said, I highly doubt any changes will come to affect the results of the election.”