Issue 37, Volume 85 - The Lance

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ELECTILE DYSFUNCTION MULTIPLE ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION PLAGUE UWSA ELECTION JONLIEDTKE features editor __________________________

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ired by controversy, complaints and allegations of corruption, the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance general election roused the attention of those seeking office and students trying to cast their ballot in a democratic election. The election had been scrapped once last month due to broken policies and the previous byelection saw hundreds of students disenfranchised with no resolution. Students voted through referendum to leave the Ontario Undergraduate Students’ Alliance and opted to used the remaining space in the former pub, the rest of which has been allocated to the Bookstore, as a new restaurant. Unofficial results show that a total of 16,495 votes were cast for executive positions with an average of roughly 2,750 votes per position and 717 votes cast per candidate. While elections for faculty representatives, board of directors, board of governors, senate and referendums faced little problems, one member of the electoral monitoring committee, who wished to remain anonymous, said there was issues with executive elections and the disqualification of candidates. DISQUALIFICATIONS “There have been complaints [about] executive positions, [which] have been dealt with by [chief returning officer Ebenezer Fordjour], and are going to EMC,” explained the member,

adding that decisions regarding disqualifications would be made by Thursday when council votes on the election report. Disqualified candidates include Cameron Gray running for vicepresident social, Caroline Jacobson for president, Jordan Renaud for vice-president administration and Mahmoud Shahwan for vice-president university affairs. These candidates were informed an hour before the UWSA Rock the Vote event at MYNT nightclub last Thursday that they had been disqualified; more than one explained that Fordjour chose not to include justifications for disqualification. “No reasoning was given to me for why I was disqualified,” explained Shahwan, who received an e-mail listing broken UWSA election policy bylaws rather than explaining how the bylaws were broken. “... I was expecting to receive an e-mail telling me exactly why it had happened.” APPEALS Renaud, a former deputy returning officer and CRO, finds it “faulty and invalidating” to not tell disqualified candidates what they were being penalized for. “By not giving the candidates [and] withholding that information, it makes it impossible to properly appeal.” Candidates had 48 hours following the election to submit an appeal. Election policy states submissions must be made in writing, but the matter was complicated by the fact that the election’s website stated that submissions could be made by e-mail.

BROKEN POLICIES While the anonymous EMC member wouldn’t comment upon whether Fordjour had followed proper policies when disqualifying candidates, the member did say that “going forward, it’s certainly something that needs to be addressed in future elections.” Polls closed last Thursday at 9 p.m. and multiple candidates have complained that Fordjour didn’t adequately address the best route to submit an appeal during the Easter weekend as the university was effectively shutdown. At the time of publication, Fordjour has yet to post election results in a public space. While photographs of unofficial election results were uploaded to Facebook, election policy states that the results must be affixed outside of the UWSA head office. The Lance obtained photographic evidence that the CRO had failed to post election results at the student centre 24 hours following the close of polls. “There was no list about the candidates posted at the UWSA office before the elections,” said UWSA student administrative clerk Alicia Trepanier, who added that a list wasn’t posted during elections nor following elections. Renaud believes that Fordjour should have better promoted the election, that the EMC should have done more to ensure that Fordjour was held accountable SEE ‘STUDENTS’ O4 w

• photo Jay Verspeelt

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