The divisive showdown for the ASSU presidency just got messier. Thanks to a lack of clear rules, two controversial elections between incumbent Ryan Hayes and challenger Colum Grove-White have sparked complaints to admin, who have threatened to withhold funding to the student union.
Grove-White was elected ASSU president by a narrow vote of 25-21 at the March 18 council meeting. Hayes, however, presented a formal complaint to CRO Ausma Malik, alleging pre-campaigning violations on the part of Grove-White.
Malik threw out the election results on April 23, on grounds of “procedural issues” and libel in campaign material and held a re-election. This time, council voted 23-21 in favour of Hayes.
At that meeting the council debated over muddled rules—and who’s to blame for them. While Malik dropped the issue of pre-campaigning, she noted that the CRO of the initial election failed to provide all candidates with rules. Sheila Hewlett, council member, then pinned the problem on the executive, who she said “failed to let the CRO know that he was CRO for the election in question.”
According to executive member Patrick Adler, no election rules actually exist. Hayes and Grove-White both took the opportunity to give their interpretation of proper election procedures.
Reading an excerpt from an MSN conversation with Saswati Deb, Hayes said that the only set of rules that were ever generally accepted had to do with pre-campaigning. Grove-White responded that since neither the ASSU constitution nor the operating Bourdinot’s Rules of Order have rules for elections, no rules were broken.
Following Hayes’ victory in the second election, Grove-White’s supporters, Adler among them, filed a complaint with Jim Delaney, director of the Office of the Vice-Provost. Accusations include undemocratic process in electing the president, executive, and chair of the meeting, as well as failure to inform council members of the April 23 meeting and election.
These objections, along with a complaint on the ASSU’s spending habits, prompted Delaney to send a formal letter to Hayes, requesting a response to the allegations and minutes of the meeting, by May 2. The letter also cites the Policy for Compulsory Non-Academic Incidental Fees, which states that further installments of student fees may be withheld if constitutional problems are not reviewed.
Hayes argues that the administration is infringing on the rights of a student union, and likens it to “the management of a corporation withholding the core funding of their workers’ labour union.” Admin interference, he said, is not unique to this situation and has involved numerous legal threats over the years, including a lawsuit over the CFS referendum. “ASSU is a democratic body that follows its own by-laws and constitution. Any disagreement can be brought to our executive or addressed at council meetings.”
Council member Adler expressed reluctance at the admin’s involvement, but said they are best suited to mediate as the ASSU can’t seem to settle the matter on its own. The next step, he said, would be to establish concrete policies for elections in the ASSU constitution.
