Two weeks have passed since team Undivided won the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) election, however, disqualified team Rez-Solution is still pushing for a new election.
Rez-Solution is awaiting the RRRA constitutional board’s rulings on the five appeals they have made regarding 11 electoral violations. The board will rule on these appeals in the coming days, starting on Feb. 6 with three of the violations.
Rez-Solution’s vice-president (programming) candidate Kendra Kading, said the appeals encompass all the violations that resulted in chief electoral officer (CEO) David Valentin removing their name from the ballot hours before polls opened on Jan. 24.
If the board does not call for a re-election, Kading said Rez-Solution will appeal this decision to the RRRA council.
Kading said if going through the RRRA council also fails, they will file a lawsuit.
Two lawyers accompanied Rez-Solution to their last constitutional meeting on Jan. 31.
The team said they are paying for the lawyers out of their own pockets, to ensure “a fair election that students deserve.”
“It’s not RRRA money, and it’s not our parents’ money,” she said. “We can’t afford lawyers, but we can’t afford our names and our reputations to be slandered either.”
In light of Rez-Solution’s decision to seek legal aid, Valentin has also hired a lawyer.
While Valentin said it is Rez-Solution’s right to hire counsel, he said it was unfortunate that it had to escalate to this level.
Valentin said RRRA will carry out a new election if the constitutional board rules in favour of Rez-Solution, however he feels the disqualification was necessary.
“The RRRA election was run in a fair and balanced manner. No one in the elections office wanted to disqualify any team, but it became apparent it was the only action we could take after 11 violations,” Valentin said.
Official RRRA rules state a team can be disqualified after three violations, or one major violation.
2013 Electoral Violations:
Rez-Solution received 11 electoral violations, including “two violations of voter bribery, one with liquor, overspending in the RRRA Election and failure to abide by candidate contracts,” according to the CEO’s official rulings.
The violation regarding liquor bribery was found after the CEO was provided with a screenshot of a Facebook message sent out by Kading.
In the message, she requested the help of several of her personal friends in the RRRA election, adding, “There will hopefully be a volunteer party with free alcohol.”
Valentin also found, after investigation, that Rez-Solution overspent on their budget according to the fair market value of the items they declared. Rez-Solution maintains they were under budget.
Valentin also awarded violations to Rez-Solution for failing to have their campaign materials approved by the RRRA office.
Rez-Solution was also awarded a violation for bribery with Timbits.
Undivided received a total of seven electoral violations. A Team You Can Trust received two.
