Ab SchVice-President (Academic)-elect Shakiba Azimi has appealed the Students’ Union’s Chief Returning Officer’s unofficial election results, and is requesting a revote for the 2015–16 VP (Academic) race.
Azimi was declared the SU’s VP (Academic) on March 6, edging Fahim Rahman with 51 per cent (2,836 votes) in the second round of voting, besting her opponent by 72 votes.
The CRO hit Vice-President (Operations and Finance) candidate Samer Sleiman with a ruling on Thursday, which disqualified him from his race for a second time. In the ruling, the CRO “believes that this is a tainted election.”
“The Chief Returning Officer believes that in particular, this may affect the outcome of the Vice-President (Academic) race, given the small margin of votes acquired to break the 50 per cent threshold required to win an election in the second round of voting,” the ruling reads.
Azimi said with the integrity of the election in question, she has filed a revote to the Disciplinary, Interpretation and Enforcement (DIE) Board.
“I believe this request is fair to the election process and would ensure that the right VP (Academic) is representing students,” Azimi said in her appeal.
She added that she does not think the other races require a re-vote, as they won by a “significantly larger margin.”
Azimi’s campaign was fined $245 by the CRO on March 6 for assembling campaign materials in The Vault, a private room in HUB that requires key-card access — effectively disqualifying her from the race. The Disciplinary, Interpretation and Enforcement (DIE) Board struck down the ruling, and allowed Azimi to stay in the race.
Azimi added that she wishes to “uphold and reinstate the integrity of the elections and the Students’ Union.”
“I cannot re-iterate the fact that I ran a clean campaign, and I am doing this for the sake of re-instating integrity in the election process,” she said.
More to come.
