The Carleton University Students’ Association council ratified the results of the 2021 executive and councillor elections at their March 30 meeting, disqualifying 25 councillor candidates for failing to submit their expenditure reports by the end of the voting period on Feb. 4.
Seven of the 25 disqualified candidates lost their seat on council. Four candidates successfully appealed their disqualification and were reinstated on council.
Faculty of arts and social science councillors-elect Paige Arsenault, Hannah-May Found, Emma Roswell, David Simon and Viktoria Szabo were disqualified and lost their council seats. Faculty of engineering and design councillor-elect Omar Fetouh and faculty of science councillor-elect Michael Aide were also disqualified and lost their seats.
Farook Al-Muflehi, vice-president (internal), said CUSA will hold a byelection for the faculty of arts and social sciences councillors, as only three of six seats are filled. All other faculty seats were filled by candidates who received the next-highest amount of votes and do not require byelections.
No executive candidates were disqualified.
The motion to ratify the results was tabled at CUSA’s February meeting because the electoral board was processing appeals from candidates for their disqualification.
Candidates were required to submit a “final, complete and accurate report of all expenditures” to the chief electoral officer before polls closed at 10 p.m. on Feb. 4.
Failing to submit an expenditure report results in immediate disqualification, according to CUSA’s electoral code.
Cameron Davis, a councillor for the faculty of engineering and design, said he was initially disqualified before appealing the decision and being reinstated.
“There should have been a recognition like, OK, this is a widespread problem, we are going to extend the deadline to submit [expenditure reports],” Davis told the Charlatan.
Davis said candidates running for a councillor position generally do not need funding.
Candidates were told to submit campaign expenditures at the all-candidates meeting before the election and at an optional all-candidates meeting during the campaign. The last reminder to candidates was an email sent around two hours before the submission deadline.
Davis said the information candidates received during the all-candidates meeting was overwhelming, leading to confusion about what was required.
“The big problem was, at an all-candidates meeting, there’s a lot of information to absorb,” Davis said. “We’re all online. Everyone’s confused. Frankly, the election period was a pretty different one than normal.”
Davis said almost every candidate who was disqualified spent no money during the campaign. Even if a candidate incurred no expenses during the campaign, they were still required to submit an expenditure report.
“A lot of people felt that it was very unfair that we were not given additional time on this,” Davis said, “especially when all people were really saying is, ‘Yeah, I spent no money.’”
To appeal a disqualification, candidates presented their case to the electoral board.
Arsenault said she chose not to appeal the decision because of the stress and work involved in doing so.
To appeal a decision of the chief electoral officer, candidates participate in an oral hearing with the electoral board, which consists of the Carleton University ombudsperson and five individuals appointed by CUSA council. The electoral board then votes on the appeal.
Arsenault said she didn’t think she had to submit an expenditure report, as she didn’t spend anything during the campaign.
Fetouh, elected councillor for the faculty of engineering and design, said he appealed his disqualification but the appeal was unsuccessful. He said he didn’t know why his appeal failed.
An international student based in Dubai, Fetouh said he received the final reminder to submit an expenditure report at 5 a.m. because of the time zone difference. He said he responded to the email later that morning.
“There was no communication that the budget report had to be submitted even if you had not spent a dollar, except for the last minute email,” Fetouh said in an email to the Charlatan. “We got disqualified because we did not submit an empty document. To me, this does not look like an association that cares about students.”
Fetouh’s seat will be filled by Mohamed Faris Riazudden, who received the next-highest number of votes for the faculty of engineering and design. An empty faculty of science seat will be filled by Conall McCutcheon, and one of the empty faculty of arts and social science seats will be filled by Baher Mansour.
CUSA chief electoral officer Alexa Camick emailed the following statement to the Charlatan:
“The Elections Office disqualified candidates who failed to submit an expenditure report, as formally stated in the Writ of Elections, in addition to numerous verbal and written reminders sent to candidates. It is the job of the Elections Office to uphold and enforce the Writ, and all other relevant Electoral documents.
As per the Electoral Code, upon disqualification, candidates can choose to appeal this decision to the Electoral Board and furthermore, the Constitutional Board. The Electoral Board and Constitutional Board are separate entities from that of the Elections Office which are managed and overseen by the Ombudsman as a non-voting member. The Electoral and Constitutional Boards submitted their decisions (overturn or uphold) after attending appeal hearings, and the Elections Office then reflected these decisions in the Official CUSA 2021 General Elections results. These results were then approved by the Electoral Board, followed by CUSA Council’s ratification.”
Arsenault expressed frustration at her disqualification.
“It’s unfortunate that even though my faculty did vote me in, I don’t get to represent them,” Arsenault said. “That’s politics.”
