Muhammad Ali Jabbar has won an unprecedented second term as president of the Ryerson Students’ Union.

Will nearly all polls reporting, the engineering student has defeated Abe Snobar in the bitter race. Jabbar’s teammate, Rebecca Rose, unseated Heather Kere to claim the VP Education spot. Toby Whitfield, his candidate for Finance, narrowly beat George Phu.

The race for VP Student Life and Events is still up in the air, with unofficial results showing a razor-thin victory for Sid Naidu, the candidate for Snobar’s Ryevolution slate.

The rumours are starting to trickle in that the counting is done. But no one’s heard what the outcome is.

Earlier tonight, Mike Verticchio informed me that, the first time he ran in an RSU election (sometime in the late 90s), the results took until 5 a.m. to count. Damn.

The counting in the RSU’s elections is proceeding at a snail’s pace and the Ram in the Rye, where everyone was watching the results, has kicked everyone out.

But stick with us. We’ll keep updating the results as they come in.

We’ve just been informed that we’ll be required to leave the Ram in the Rye shortly.

Apparently bars close.

(And the lighting in this room is so terrible that we’re not sure what they are! — Kerry)

Muhammad Ali Jabbar is still in the lead after the Rogers Communication Centre poll has been tabulated. Jabbar’s total is now 463; Abe Snobar has pulled into second place with 194 votes; Chris Fortin is sitting at 181.

The rest of Jabbar’s slate (VP Education candidate Rebecca Rose, VP Finance candidate Toby Whitfield and VP Student Life candidate Mal Sampa) are also leading.

The results are taking an unusually long time to come in, prompting a few candidates to ask if everything is okay upstairs. The business school is still a long way from being counted, according to CRO Paris Cameron-Gardos.

In other news, the RCC has put the final nail in the coffin of Boonaa Mohammed’s political career. Sean Carson, Caitlin Smith and Naomi Cowan look poised to win the faculty’s three seats on the RSU’s board of directors.

The Ram’s pretty empty except for the karaoke revellers in the front. Jabbar is getting impatient along with all the increasingly bitter journalists who want to go home — especially yours truly who has an online assignment due tomorrow and has yet to start writing it.

It’s been more than an hour and no other results have come in. I suspect the vote counters are taking a nap or making an extended Dominion run — or have gone home and forgot to tell the candidates about it.

The back room has emptied out considerably. My first words upon arriving were “I think this is a fire hazard.” Now it’s half empty.

A group of people are discussing the U.S. presidential election. But that election, like this one, is apparently not over because we’re waiting for an obscene number of polls to report. (Yes, including business.)

I think John is purposely writing bad photo captions so as to embarrass me. That’s right, I said it.

dancey time

Originally uploaded by eyeopener2008

It was also Open Mic Night.

Muhammad Ali Jabbar and his slate are showing signs of a runaway victory, with 364 votes, compared to 132 for independent Chris Fortin and 125 for Abe Snobar.

However, the business school (Abe’s stronghold) has yet to report.

I just met Abe’s identical twin, Mohammed. A student at McMaster, it turns out he’s been dealing with the same CFS battles as his brother. He’s got a lot of interesting things to say; he thinks this election might have been rigged (“why is Fortin in second place?”) and he’s willing to go to the Globe and Mail with his claims that the CFS is tampering in student elections.

Robert “Robbie” Paskowitz doesn’t know it yet, but Griffith d’Souza pinky swore Sarah Boesveld that the Engineering slate will run next year.

Surprise!

Also, Abe showed up.