The winners of this year’s Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) election were supposed to be announced March 21, but the results are being delayed pending an investigation into one of the teams, according to the chief electoral officer.
The Home Team and Keep RRRA Working are both tied with 290 votes, according to RRRA president Kaisha Thompson, but a recount won’t occur until the allegations against the Home Team have been addressed, said CEO Fadi El Masry in a press release.
The investigation started after the department of housing brought a “confidential” issue to the attention of the CEO, according to the release.
El Masry wouldn’t comment, but Thompson said the investigation is centred around a residence desk binder that Home Team presidential candidate and residence desk employee Shanée Bailey got her hands on.
The binder contains the confidential information about the approximately 3,000 students living in residence including their full names, birth date, residence room and roommate’s name, Thompson said.
When El Masry was informed of this, Thompson said he gave the team a choice.
“[The Home Team] had the option to resign and what [Bailey] did would remain totally confidential,” she said, adding the other option was to stay in the running but have the police called to investigate.
“They decided they would fight against it; they remained adamant that [Bailey] did not steal it,” Thompson said.
Although Bailey refused to speak, she addressed the allegations in a Facebook note March 22. Bailey said she struggles with mental health issues and accuses El Masry of trying to “shame” her out of the elections.
“I brought the [rez binder] back to my room before nominations even took place and in my distracted state forgot to return it after,” she said. “I had totally forgotten about having this binder, and today was informed that because it was in my possession I, and my whole team would be [disqualified].”
Bailey said she told the CEO about the binder and her mental health issues, but he accused the slate of cheating.
“What’s worst is that he then used my confession of my issues with mental health to blackmail me into ‘quietly dropping out of the race’ right before we are supposed to do the recount,” she said.
Bailey also denied using the personal information in the binder to help the Home Team win the elections.
“I never used this binder to further us in the election. I didn’t even remember I had it until I was asked to return it,” she said. “The Home Team has run nothing but a fair and honest campaign.”
Although Thompson said she doesn’t know how the residence binder and mental health issues are connected, things have “gotten really out of hand.”
“We’ve never had a RRRA election where the police have gotten involved,” she said.
El Masry and housing are working together to sort through the details, Thompson said, but the Home Team is pending disqualification.
Bailey and her teammates can appeal, Thompson said, at which point the RRRA constitutional board will hear reasons for and against by the slate and El Masry.
If the constitutional board upholds the disqualification, Thompson said they have the option of challenging the ruling and having council make a decision, but that requires half of the councillors to agree to hear the challenge and two-thirds to overturn the disqualification.
There were initially five slates running for this year’s election but one of them, the W.A.Y slate, was disqualified March 20. Given the ongoing investigation, there is no timeframe yet for when the final election results will be released.
— with files from Oliver Sachgau
