As voting for the York Federation of Students elections continues, York Now, the slate running against the incumbent York United, alleges the nomination process was “undemocratic,” and did not provide enough campaigning time.
Jonathan Jupiter, a third-year sociology student and York Now presidential nominee, says nine members of his team, including himself, were initially deemed ineligible to run in the election by the Chief Returning Officer due to an insufficient number of nominations. Jupiter says this happened because he and his team were given less nomination forms to fill than was required.
Nominee-hopefuls gather signatures on nomination forms, which each contain a set number of signature lines. A certain number of valid student signatures is required for the potential candidate to be able to run in the election. The amount varies depending on the position the student is running for.
As part of his appeal, Jupiter stated that nomination sheets’ columns and headings were misaligned, causing students to place their constituency and signatures in the wrong locations, thus invalidating them as nominations.
The Elections Appeals Committee ruling document obtained by Excalibur says “these were the same nomination forms used, without incident, in the previous two YFS elections,” adding that, “The EAC’s review of Mr. Jupiter’s nomination sheet revealed that while some student had signed under the ‘constituency’ heading and written their constituency under the ‘signature’ heading, no nominee had been deemed ineligible by the CRO for this reason.”
Jupiter further alleges that he and several other members of his team were given the wrong number of nomination forms.
He says, for example, that some of his team’s executive nominees were only given 80 nomination lines to fill as opposed to the required 100 and that they were not given more forms until the following week. He says they were not told, and thus, unaware that they needed more signatures.
“This cut out a weekend where my team and I could have collected nominations,” he says, adding that for students, this would have been the best time to gather signatures.
The nomination period began January 21 at 10 a.m. and ended February 1 at 4 p.m.
Samuel Nithiananthan, the current CRO, says all nominees were told of the number of nominations needed to be deemed eligible and that the distribution of an incorrect amount of nomination forms was a clerical error that affected all candidates equally.
“Additional copies were available Monday once the error had been discovered. Nominees are also allowed to, and nominees did, photocopy additional sheets in order to reach the required numbers of nominations,” says Nithiananthan.
However, Jupiter says the York Now nominee running for director of Bethune College tried to photocopy extra sheets and was told this wasn’t allowed.
“If you know something is your fault, you accept responsibility,” he says. “They keep acting like this is something little and throwing it under the rug—we shouldn’t have to photocopy anything.”
Members of York Now, who were deemed ineligible, were also told that many of the signatures they obtained were attached to incorrect student numbers, meaning those who signed were not of members of the YFS, or were indecipherable.
Nithiananthan says all nominees are required to submit fully completed nomination forms, which are vetted against a list of York undergraduate students provided by the administration.
“We were looking for nomination signatures that were legible, had a corresponding student number and name, as well as a unique signature,” he says. “Another issue that occurs is that students who are not members of the YFS, including graduate students or Seneca students, sign the forms. This is why most nominees get more than the required number of nominations.”
But this wasn’t the only problem reported by frustrated York Now nominees. Auranghzeb Khandawala, who is running for director of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, says he was penalized for gathering signatures from students outside the faculty, although election by-laws say this is acceptable.
Nithiananthan says, “The past practice has always been that candidates receive nomination signatures in the position they are seeking from the same constituency that they wish to serve.”
Section 10.8 of the YFS by-laws states that “Candidates for the elected Executive offices shall be nominated pursuant to a nomination form approved by the Elections Committee, signed by at least one hundred (100) members of the Federation [meaning any student who pays membership fees to the YFS], and submitted to the Elections Committee. It is the responsibility of the candidate to submit a bona fide nomination or application form.”
“The appeals committee determined that after a strict reading of the by-laws, some of these individuals should be deemed eligible,” says Nithiananthan.
Khandawala says by the time the appeals committee had overturned the disqualification decision, valuable campaigning days had already been wasted.
Nithiananthan says he, the CRO, and the appeals committee are unable to extend the nomination period or change any election dates and that candidates who were deemed ineligible on Friday, February 1 were told they could appeal the ruling.
“Some candidates appealed right away and their appeal was heard on Monday, February 4. If they were successful in their appeal, their status was reinstated Monday night as to ensure they had sufficient time to conduct their campaigns,” he says.
Nithiananthan says Jupiter, however, waited five days to submit his appeal. According to Nithiananthan, Jupiter’s case was heard the next day, the same day his status was reinstated.
“He chose to wait five days to submit his appeal. As such, he bares the responsibility for losing five days of campaigning,” he says.
Jupiter denies having waited five days to submit his appeal, and says he appealed the decision right away.
However, according to an Elections Appeals Committee document detailing Jupiter’s case, Jupiter did not appeal until February 5.
“I didn’t get reinstated until [Thursday, February 7] at 10:15 a.m. to be exact, and then all of a sudden, they wanted me to go downstairs and do a debate at 10:30,” says Jupiter. “I had already missed the one at Glendon on Wednesday, and Friday was a snow day, so what days do I really have to become a threat now?”
“It’s an insult to us because I can’t go ask this lady or guy to vote for me because they don’t even know what I stand for,” he adds.
Jupiter says as a result of lost campaign time, and being denied an extended campaigning period, York Now has requested to have their names removed from ballots, saying the slate doesn’t want any part in an election process that is “unfair” and “undemocratic.”
He says York Now wasn’t given enough time to represent what they stand for and be able to interact with the student body.
“We want educated votes,” says Jupiter. “We don’t want people voting for us just because they know us or because they’re our friends. We want them voting on what we stand for.”
Nithiananthan says, “An individual’s inability to meet the basic requirements to become an eligible candidate, including those from Mr. Jupiter’s slate, should not impact candidates who ensured they submitted bonafide packages, and took precautionary measures to ensure all signatures were valid.”
“Everyone was given an equal opportunity to conduct her or his campaigns. What would be unfair is to give Mr. Jupiter’s team special treatment,” he says.
As of publication, York Now has not put up any campaign materials around campus. The YFS election voting period ends on February 15.
Tamara Khandaker, Copy Editor
