The winning candidate in a vote for student union president at UPEI will have to try again, after the first election results were nullified because a Facebook page supporting him was up on election day.

'I'm actually hoping this whole process is going to garner an even larger turnout.'— Justin Douglas

Justin Douglas was also accused of having posters too close to the polling station right before the election.

On Tuesday night, the student union met with interested parties for more than an hour, then closed the doors and deliberated for two hours on the election, eventually deciding to quash the results but allow Douglas to run again in another election in two weeks.

While Douglas is upset about the disqualification — he believes all his posters were down and said he tried to have the Facebook page taken down but the owner would not remove it — he is glad he is getting another chance.

"I'm actually hoping this whole process is going to garner an even larger turnout in the next election," Douglas told CBC News Tuesday.

"It's going to interfere with my school work, but this is something I want and this is something I'm going to fight for. I'm going to do it."

Student union president Willy Gauthier said council's decision to disqualify Douglas was a hard one.

"I think it's a position that no one in the room wanted to have to be put in," said Gauthier.

"One thing that we can all agree on is that Justin specifically put a lot of effort into his campaign, and was very interested and passionate about becoming student union president."

Douglas said he plans to start campaigning for the second election immediately.

Runner-up also ready

Asher Fredricks, who ran second in the nullified election, told CBC News Wednesday he's also ready for a new campaign.

Fredricks finished 69 votes behind Douglas, who won support on 417 of the 940 ballots cast.

"Since this is towards the end of school, I will have a little more time to concentrate on actually campaigning, although the campaign period is considerably shorter this time," said Fredricks.

"I will definitely spend as much time as I can out there campaigning this time around."

Fredricks said he is happy with the student union's decision Tuesday night to disqualify Douglas and to allow him to run again.