Change CUSA candidate Sadia Wamunyu’s disqualification from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) elections was overturned, but she will not receive her campaign funds back.
Wamunyu had three electoral offences in total, and was previously disqualified from her campaign “for posting on Instagram and for campaigning in Service areas,” according to the CUSA elections website.
The electoral board, however, overturned one of her electoral offenses on March 3. Wamunyu said she will not receive the $200 she spent on campaign material.
Samantha Somerville, the Chief Electoral Officer for the CUSA elections, said she oversaw the voting and made the final rulings concerning Wamunyu’s original disqualification.
“What happened is we make our rulings and then any candidate can then request that they be reviewed by the electoral board,” Somerville said. “They changed one of my rulings that she would no longer be disqualified but she still has two electoral offences against her.”
Somerville said the first offenses stands as a warning, a second one means a candidate is not allowed to get their funds back, and a third means a disqualification from the election.
Wamunyu said she waited a long time to wait on an answer from the electoral board regarding her appeal.
“I don’t even care at this point. The rulings were fair, but two months is a long time to be waiting on an answer.”
Somerville, however, said she sent information regarding Wamunyu’s disqualification to the board right away.
“[The Board is made up of] students, so they need to find time to meet,” Somerville said. “Because the disqualification of Sadia was after the elections process had ended, that’s probably why they took a bit longer.”
While Somerville’s original rulings were done on Jan. 29, Wamunyu said the appeal process took much longer to complete than she expected.
“These inconveniences make people not put appeals up because they know they’re not going to be taken seriously,” she said. “I lost about $200, that is a lot of money to students.”
Wamunyu is the only candidate from the 2014-15 election who will not receive campaign funds back.
