The spring election results for the Faculty of Arts & Science Council have been thrown out following objections from a candidate. Fanxum Peter Zeng, an international student from Beijing, pointed out that nominations for the elections had been opened for only six business days between April 12 and 20—less than the 10 required by election procedures.
Colum Grove-White, out-going president of ASSU, said that Zeng made the complaint after being disqualified from the election for an unrelated matter. Zeng claims that he spoke to some students who were unaware of the election, so he requested the CRO and Faculty Registrar Glenn Loney “give other students the opportunity to run for the election […] in the interest of fairness.” When Loney denied his request, he took it to the office of the dean, following which the Executive/Agenda Committee decided to set the entire election aside.
“Because it’s quite clear in the constitution that there needs to be ten business days for nominations, we threw out the election results,” said Grove-White
With the spring election results scrapped, all the positions on the Arts & Science council and its committees have been reopened. A new nomination period and election are scheduled for early October 2009 when the council usually elects first-year student representatives.
