Days after the results of the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) election, disqualified team Rez-Solution is threatening a lawsuit against the organization if a new election is not called.
Rez-Solution was disqualified less than five hours before voting began Jan. 24, due to 11 electoral violations that included bribing students with liquor and overspending on campaign budgets.
Now they are seeking to have the constitutional board overturn their disqualification in a meeting on Jan. 31, and have circulated a petition around residence that calls for a new election.
“They have every right to appeal their disqualification,” said chief electoral officer David Valentin. “But it’s not my expectation that the constitutional board is going to overrule me. In my view, 11 violations is 11 too many.”
“If you read the electoral code, it’s very clear that it’s up to my discretion whether or not I disqualify a team,” he said.
Rez-Solution said if their appeal fails at both the constitutional board and RRRA council, they will go to court for the same things they are currently asking RRRA for.
“We believe that we deserve: A, an apology and B, a re-election. All we want is an election with our name on the ballot,” said Daniel Shalinsky, who ran for vice-president (administration) with Rez-Solution.
“We’re not trying to force a lawsuit for no reason. We know we’re in the right here. We can’t afford lawyers, but the problem is a lot of our names have been slandered. This is going to follow us through the rest of our university years,” he said.
In response, Valentin said, “They signed contracts, they broke them.”
“If they want to go to court, I’ll be happy to go to court. Because I can tell you right now that no judge in Ottawa, no judge in Ontario, no judge in Canada, is going to tell me that what I did was wrong,” he said.
While Rez-Solution did submit a final budget lower than $200, their purchases, including printing costs, were not considered fair market value, giving them an unfair advantage over the other teams, according to Valentin.
“The whole point of a spending limit is that everyone has to spend an equivalent amount of money,” Valentin said. This rule prevents slates from getting deals from friends who might have printing connections, for example.
RRRA’s policies make it clear that the CEO can disqualify teams based on even the most technical violations, but Rez-Solution intends to argue that the budget violation is too arbitrary, and that accusations of bribery come from misinterpreted text messages between close friends.
“It’s not about winning so much right now, it’s about the allegations that were placed against my team and myself,” said Sidney Otoboeze, who ran for president on the Rez-Solution slate. “They were wrong, they were frivolous, and we just need to clear them out.”
Valentin said that if the constitutional board rules in favour of Rez-Solution, he will be happy to call a new election, but he regrets the impact the allegations have on the process.
“I think it lowers public confidence in the elections. I find that really unfortunate because I tried to the best of my ability to make it a fair election,” he said.
