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NEWS
In a letter to the SFSS Board of Directors on Friday, April 5, the Independent Electoral Committee (IEC) announced its decision to disqualify Alia Ali from the SFSS 2013 general election. Ali was elected to the University Relations Officer (URO) position last month, beating out second place candidate Brock Balfour by 29 votes. The official letter, written by
Last Thursday’s SFSS special general meeting (SGM) was the most attended in years, drawing the full quorum of 240 students needed to make changes to SFSS by-laws. The motion to amend the society’s bylaws passed, and will go into effect May 1, 2014. “I don’t think since 2006 or 2008 has the SFSS actually had a quorate general meeting,” said SFSS president Lorenz Yeung, who chaired the event. The meeting was called to order an hour after it was scheduled to begin. The proposed bylaw changes were voted on as part of an omnibus package. A motion to break up the bylaws and vote on them piece by piece was made, but quickly defeated. The omnibus package included changes to 15 of the 22 existing bylaws, as well as
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April 8, 2013
IEC chief electoral officer Avery Kwong, states that Ali “failed to produce appropriate documentation regarding her registration as a student at Simon Fraser University.” According to Ali, she was registered for courses this semester, but was forced to withdraw under extenuating circumstances due to personal issues. However, Ali failed to provide documentation regarding her withdrawal to the IEC at any point in the election. Kwong stated in the letter that Ali promised to provide proof when the registrar accepted the withdrawal and registered as a student, and that the IEC “accepted her promise in good faith.” At the end of the election, when Kwong again solicited for documentation, Ali responded that her withdrawal had been accepted, but still did not provide proof. The letter
the creation of a new one. Discussion was also cut short twice, as an audience member called the question and forced a vote to adopt the agenda, and later to pass the bylaw changes. Going through the omnibus package proved lengthy, and was cut off after by the student attendees after bylaw nine. The changes ranged from small language changes to different terms, such as the renaming of SFSS Forum to the Council. Major alterations included the elimination of the board’s internal relations officer position, to be replaced by an executive director. The member services officer position was also split into two separate offices, one focused on community, and the other on administration. Another major change was the formal creation of Faculty Student Unions (DSUs), under the new bylaw. Though DSUs such as the Society of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) and Business Administration Student Society (BASS) have been operating on campus for a while, they haven’t been recognized by the SFSS as FSUs.
said when Kwong asked again, Ali stopped responding. However, Ali claims that she is now officially registered as a student, and that she had sent documentation to Kwong. When Kwong was asked about this claim, he declined to comment.
On why documentation wasn’t required at the beginning of the election process,
Alison Roach associate news editor news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560
Kwong said, “Correspondence was sent back and forth during this period, it wasn’t something that the IEC ignored, but again it’s something that I’m not going to comment on at the moment.” As of press time, Ali has stated that she plans to release an official statement as soon as possible. “It’s not an official decision, from when I talked to Avery. He’s going to talk to the commissioners . . . I think this is still up in the air,” she commented. In the letter, it is stated that Ali is disqualified, and several options on how to proceed are given. These include leaving the URO seat vacant, putting runner up Balfour in her place, holding a re-vote for candidates Balfour and Ashleigh Girodat, or holding a by-election in the upcoming fall semester. When the letter was first
Amara Janssens
released by the IEC, the decision between these options was to be left to the SFSS board of directors, but Kwong later sent out a message to board members saying that the IEC will meet to discuss the issue and choose the best possible solution to recommend at the next board meeting this Wednesday. “The options that we are considering are not finalized,” said Kwong. On the definity of the decision, Kwong commented, “[Ali] can’t be appointed. She didn’t necessarily do anything wrong to get disqualified, other than the fact that she’s not eligible. “She basically is disqualified. That’s what it is, there’s no other word that I can use to describe the situation. . . . There’s no other way I can put it.” The IEC’s decision will be brought to the SFSS board of directors this Wednesday.
Yeung explained: “The intent of this bylaw is to introduce another level of — you could call it governance . . . in between the board and departmental student unions. Currently the board directly manages and provides funding for departmental student unions.
It makes it difficult for those in the same faculty to hold campus-wide events.” The new bylaw allows these FSUs to be formally established by referendum, and would then in turn recognize and represent DSUs in the faculty. The motion to amend the
bylaws passed by a wide margin, opposed by only a few members of the audience who had previously wished to sever the bylaws, and discuss each in detail. Afterwards, Yeung closed by saying, “Thank you, everyone. We made history in the society today.”