By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 20, 2013
Students hoping to find out which candidates will be representing them on the Student Union Society (SUS) board of directors for the coming academic year will have to wait a little longer than expected.
Tuesday night’s extraordinary board meeting called by SUS to ratify election results was adjourned after a mere 28 minutes, 10 of which were spent in a recess. No election results were announced nor ratified after student guest Olaf Nilsson requested a number of electoral committee documents be shared with the public.
The requested documents were listed in a letter that was handed out to board members and guests. Notably, Nilsson wishes to see a list of all electoral committee members, as well as the identities of those who filed complaints against Chris Doyle’s campaign.
Nilsson charged that the complaints which resulted in Doyle’s expulsion from the presidential race on the eve of the voting period would not be “substantiated” if the committee refused to reveal the identities of the complainants.
Except for the chief electoral officer, the identities of electoral committee members have been kept anonymous for recent elections.
The SUS governing manual, which provides regulations that bind both SUS and the electoral committee, does not require electoral committee members’ identities to be kept anonymous, but nor does it state they must be “read into the record,” as Nilsson suggested was customary.
Likewise, there is no policy in place that states complainants must be identified; the governing manual states the electoral committee “shall have the power to hear appeals and complaints” and “may make a discretionary ruling on matters relating to the Election not explicitly mentioned in this policy, subject only to review by the Board of The Society.”
In the absence of SUS bylaws stating otherwise, Nilsson invoked section 37 of the BC Society Act, which states documents must be available to inspection by members with reasonable notice.
However, interim president Shane Potter stated that the electoral committee is not directly bound by the BC Society Act, since they are formed by the university and are not technically part of SUS.
“The elections committee is not an organ of the Student Union Society,” he said. “They are under the university senate.”
“This I don’t believe is the case,” Nilsson replied.
“We will review this with our legal team and see if this is something we need to respond to,” Potter stated.
Nilsson requested the documents be supplied to him by noon the next day – a deadline a mere 18 hours away.
“That is still a reasonable request,” Nilsson stated after the meeting.
He also objected to allowing the electoral committee to present their report before these documents were made available, suggesting it could leave SUS liable to do so.
Nilsson’s letter ends with a statement that he is prepared to take proceedings to the Supreme Court of British Columbia if necessary.
“Govern your affairs accordingly,” the letter concludes.
When asked if he was acting on behalf of Doyle, Nilsson replied in the negative.
According to Facebook, Doyle and Nilsson have been friends since November 2012.
