The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) voted 25 in favour at a council meeting on Jan. 11 to pass the CUSA General Elections 2016 Writ of Election amid discussions about overspending in the clubs and societies referendum.
Chief electoral officer (CEO) Matthew Swain issued the writ, which included an amendment to the expense limits section. The section amendment proposed placing a limit on campaign expenses rather than on campaign budgets, and also included a link back to the electoral code. The amendment was passed with 29 votes in favour.
“One big distinction for me with this amendment is changing the word ‘budgets’ to ‘expenses,’ because there is a pretty big difference between those two things,” Swain said. “You can obviously have a budget of $300 but have expenses of $350, which is not okay.”
Both Swain and CUSA president Fahd Alhattab fielded a number of questions from council members regarding an advertisement published by the ‘Yes’ committee in The Charlatan during the recent referendum held by CUSA regarding raising the clubs and societies levy.
While the writ of referenda states that referenda campaigns are limited to $400 per committee, an advertisement valued at approximately $670 was published in The Charlatan by the association on behalf of the ‘Yes’ committee with donated funds from CUSA.
Alhattab said clearer distinctions need to be made between capital and in-kind donations to campaigns.
“I think what we have to get into is a very detailed discussion around donations. If someone does photography for the campaign, and they’re giving their own time, is that valued? Can you put a price point on that?”
“It’s pretty concerning that it was so easy to more than double-spend the spending limits, which is really important because the entire point of spending limits is to ensure that every party has a fair and equal playing field,” said Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) president Michael Bueckert.
“I think in this case it’s very much not ambiguous. I think it is a very black-and-white clear case of overspending and not reporting it,” he added.
Alhattab said the regulations need to be changed, but these changes cannot be made by council alone.
“The CEO and DEO [deputy electoral officer] can put some policies forward to the Constitutional Policy Committee, which can review them and see what is most important, and then that can be voted on by council. I believe that is the correct process and the best process,” Alhattab said.
Swain said election guidelines will have clearer directions on donations and spending as a result of the referendum ad.
“The campaign guidelines given to all successful nominees is going to have a special budget or expense limit section to outline these problems and fix them, because I agree it is an issue and it needs to be brought up and solved,” Swain said.
The campaigning period for the CUSA general election lasts from Jan. 20 to 26, with voting taking place on Jan. 27 and 28.
