A trio of candidates seeking New College seats on the UTSU board of directors have been disqualified once again on charges of campaigning inside student residences.

Baliqis Hashiru, Khalid Khan, and Ali Mustafa Bello received nine demerit points Friday in a ruling on an appeal submitted by opponent Craig Maniscalco.

Hashiru, Khan, and Bello were disqualified earlier in the election along with 22 other Unity candidates, only to be requalified less then 24 hours later.

“It’s great to have our concerns addressed,” said Maniscalco. “It took them thirteen days to address my appeals,” he added. Maniscalco received a response from Elections and Referenda Committee chair Clara Ho, after hearing nothing from chief returning officer Daniel Lo for almost two weeks.

In the ERC ruling, Unity candidates received four demerit points for postering within six metres of the Wilson Hall residence.

They also received five points for campaigning with six metres of Chestnut residence. Chief returning officer for Chestnut residence Gerrit Van de Riet had originally submitted a complaint, which CRO Daniel Lo never responded to.

Lo explained to Maniscalco in an email that he had dealt with Van de Riet’s complaint in a single ruling.

“Lo never responded to Gerrit’s email,” said Maniscalco. “It is pretty frustrating when you consider that they managed to turn it around in 24 hours when Unity candidates were about to be disqualified,” said Maniscalco.

The ERC ruled Friday to separate the complaints.

The disqualification means that the Familiar Faces slate — Craig Maniscalco, Laurel Chester, and Justin Charlick — will fill all of New College’s seats on the UTSU board of directors, barring a reversal of Friday’s ruling by the Elections and Referenda Appeals Committee.

Earlier in the week, a “major calculation error” discovered by Familiar Faces led to a recount of New College, St. Michael’s College, and Engineering constituencies.

The new tally resulted in Laurel Chester prevailing over Hashiru, even before the latest round of disqualifications. In the first count, she lost by three votes, but once the error was corrected, she won by seven votes.

“I’m really excited,” said Chester. “I wanted to run with the Familiar Faces slate because I find there is a huge disconnect between college councils and the UTSU.”

In a separate ruling issued Friday, all Unity candidates received five demerit points for “intentional misrepresentation of fact” by claiming that they won an increase to the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant this year. The increase took place in 2010.

The Unity candidates are appealing the decision to the Elections and Referenda Appeals Committee (ERAC), which will hear arguments on Monday at 2 pm. The ERAC has previously thrown out several rulings made by the ERC.