Oumar Salifou
One count of pre-campaigning and two counts of poster violations against multiple Students’ Union election candidates marked the end of the first week of the 2019 election season.
Two rulings from Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Ilyas Gora were posted on the elections website on Feburary 27, along with two additional rulings on the 28th. Two candidates, presidential candidate Andre Bourgeois and vice-president (external) candidate Adam Brown, will be fined for their offences, while presidential candidate Akanksha Bhatnagar was found innocent of wrongdoing.
In the first ruling, a complaint was made against Bourgeois after he was found to have published a campaign post on Facebook at 8:48 a.m. on Monday, February 25. As Bourgeois’ post was made before campaigning was permitted at 9:00 a.m., he is being fined $22.40 for pre-campaigning.
The complaint was made to the CRO by Regan Brodziak, who is the communication’s director for presidential candidate Akanksha Bhatnagar’s campaign.
Brodziak made a second complaint against Bourgeois after three of his posters were found on glass and wood surfaces in the Agriculture and Forestry Centre, which is a violation of the university’s postering guidelines which says that posters may not be placed on such surfaces. Bourgeois will be charged $6.00.
Later, a complaint was made against vice-president (external) candidate Adam Brown after five of his posters were found in the Law Centre, where the faculty of law said that campaign posters are only allowed on designated boards after they’ve been stamped. The faculty’s request was made on February 26, and a complaint against Brown’s posters was made two days later. Brown will be fined $10.00.
The complaint against Brown was made by Julianna Stern, who is the campaign manager for Robert Bilak, the other candidate in the vice-president (external) race.
Another complaint was made against Bhatnagar, claiming her posters violated election rules. However, she was found not to have violated any rules by the CRO.
The original complaint was made on February 27, saying that two of Bhatnagar’s posters were found in the Computing Science Building in violation of Undergraduate Association of Computing Science (UACS) guidelines. However, the CRO had not heard from UACS stating if they had any specific postering rules.
The complaint against Bhatnagar’s posters was made by Suzanah Buchanan. Bourgeois said Buchanan is a supporter but is not on his campaign team.
Reporting him for campaigning 12 minutes early? Give me a break. Good job shooting yourself in the foot with that complaint.