Student election winner disqualified

The Otago Daily Times has a story on how Jo Moore has been disqualified, after winning the OUSA 2009 Presidential election.

Moore won in mid August, with a 122 vote margin over her closest rival.

The Scene has details of the complaints – she had a keg party the day before voting closed, and around 15 people voted at the keg party on a couple of laptops there. The rules say a candidate can not be within 20 metres of a polling booth, and it seems this now includes laptops!

This is not the first time an incumbent executive has disqualified a sucessful Presidential candidate. VUWSA did the same a few years ago. There is no natural justice process involved – and in the case of Moore she does not get a re-election – the losing candidate is now declared the winner – very different to electoral law where a sucessful candidate who breaks the rules triggers a by-election not an automatic victory to the loser.

Miss Moore said she understood a complaint that she had been within 20m of a polling facility during voting had been upheld, and it had also been suggested she had overspent the $1000 limit for election campaigning.

She disputed the findings and said she had receipts for all her election spending.

The latest appeals process had breached the principles of natural justice because she had not been advised about it and had been given no chance to provide any evidence on her own behalf, she said.

A lot of people do not realise there is no requirement for a compulsory student association to act democratically. In fact OUSA once abolished presidential elections, and replaced the President with a King. It was a joke – but a totally legal joke that lasted around six weeks.

It is almost irresponsible of Pariament to have given powers of compulsory membership to student associations but no obligations to be democratic or accountable.