Elections reopened due to “human error”
On March 1, the St. Thomas University Students’ Union (STUSU) explained that it had to recommence the spring general election due to a “human error.” Article 5 Section 3 of its by-laws establish that “Online polls shall be open at minimum from 8 a.m. the first day of voting until 6 p.m. the final day of voting,” but the initial elections only lasted 10 hours.
Related: BREAKING: STUSU recommences elections on March 1
“We apologize for this inconvenience to everybody. And we’re hoping we’re going to be able to move forward from this with transparency, accountability and action on our behalf,” said Stevie DeMerchant, president of STUSU.
According to vice president administration Ahmik Burneo, at 7:13 p.m. on Feb. 29, the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) sent an email to all candidates to inform them about recommencing the elections, after having a meeting with the executives to look for solutions to this violation. Then, at around 8 p.m., students were informed on social media.
The CRO met with the executive team and decided before submitting a vote at the SRC that STUSU would share campaign materials on its social media to keep the candidates’ momentum after the incident.
“We posted to ensure they get exposure once again, although we understand that might violate our by-laws which doesn’t allow campaign materials to be exposed,” said Burneo
Article 4 Section 10 reads “ The Chief Returning Officer shall have no jurisdiction over campaign materials posted or distributed in residences or off-campus.”
A vote at the SRC was later passed to make the decision official. It is important to note that the vote took place after 3 p.m. on March 1, so the posts with campaign materials were originally posted in violation of the by-laws.
