The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) constitutional board disqualified winning slate A New RRRA during a meeting that ran until early into the morning March 24, according to chief electoral officer David Valentin.
The decision came after the United slate— which finished second to A New RRRA in the second RRRA election— appealed the results on March 14.
As a result, United is the new winner of the election.
United, previously known as Undivided, won the first RRRA election, however the results were nullified after the disqualification of another slate, Rez-Solution, was overturned.
A new election was called in which Rez-Solution, under the new name A New RRRA, won.
Valentin, who was present at the meeting, said the board cited the six harassment violations he had given A New RRRA, including four that were handed out after the election itself, as “extremely unacceptable.”
The board also mentioned Valentin’s reluctance to disqualify teams, due to the nature of it being the second election, in its reasoning, he said.
Valentin said his behaviour had differed the second time around since the disqualification he had given during the first election was overruled.
But Valentin said he defended the actions of the elections office at the meeting.
“I testified that the elections office did not endorse, nor did we not endorse, disqualifying team A New RRRA,” Valentin said, adding that he chose not to take a position because he did not feel strongly enough either way.
“I presented arguments for disqualifying [A New RRRA], and I presented arguments for upholding [the election results], and I instructed the constitutional board to do the rest to figure it out,” he said.
A New RRRA now has the option of appealing the constitutional board’s decision to at the next RRRA council meeting, according to Valentin.
“I’m sure they’ll be doing that,” he said, noting it would take two-thirds of council to overturn the constitutional board’s decision.
