The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) council upheld the disqualification of slate A New RRRA, previously known as Rez-Solution, on April 7, according to chief electoral officer David Valentin.
The RRRA constitutional board disqualified the winners of this year’s second RRRA election, A New RRRA, on March 24 for multiple electoral violations, including harassment.
Valentin said the meeting, which ran for six hours and was the last council meeting of the year, reaffirms team United as the winning RRRA slate of this year’s election.
United, previously known as Undivided, won the first RRRA election. However those results were nullified by the RRRA constitutional board after Rez-Solution’s disqualification in the first election was successfully appealed.
John Mesman, the campaign manager for A New RRRA, maintained that his slate was the rightful winner of the elections.
“It was not a fair election by any means . . . despite that it was a democratic one. Students were given the opportunity to vote and choose. They voted and chose A New RRRA.”
Mesman said the disqualification of A New RRRA “was a sad day for RRRA and the future of the association. This is where democracy fails and partisanship and bias take over.”
“This is the end of the road for fighting within the boundaries of the RRRA [constitution],” he said. “We have a legitimate case should we wish to file an injunction and bring this to court, but we are short on time and money.”
Mesman declined to comment on whether or not legal action would be taken, but did say, “our next course of action will be filing our case with the university administration and the housing department.”
“It is time for us to go back to school, we are students. Students’ rights have been abused and violated and it is inappropriate for the university to turn a blind eye any longer,” Mesman said.
The new RRRA executives from United are president Will Cathcart, vice-president (administration) Arif Jaffer, and vice-president (programming) Jessica Barlow.
Cathcart said United is thankful to the voters and candidates that participated in the elections, as well as the constitutional board and council for their work on the final decision.
“It’s been a long run and all three teams have been through a lot,” Cathcart said. “We are excited to work for residence students next year.”
