UWSA opens campaigns for general election
By Hannah Larking
News Editor
March 4, 2009
 The UWSA opened campaigning for its general elections on Thursday, Feb. 26.
This year, there are over 45 candidates running for a position in the UWSA, and 17 of those are competing for the executive placements of president, vice-president university affairs, vice-president finance and operation and vice president administration.
“I’m happy that we have so many people interested in running,” said UWSA president Tiffany Gooch. “It just gives the students more choice.”
“There are a lot of fees increasing… and it’s important that students really pay attention to these issues and ask those hard questions of the candidates so that this isn’t a popularity contest,” Gooch added.
Chief returning officer Naaila Sangrar said that a few new by-laws implemented this year will reduce the amount of waste in campaigning.
An example of this is the new mandate for 80 per cent of paper materials used in the campaign to be recycled in a poster recycling campaign scheduled to take place just before voting opens. “I’m very excited about this,” Sangrar said, “It’s a joint venture between the environmental coalition and the UWSA.”
If the candidates do not attend the meeting, Sangrar said their expenditure refund will be withheld.
Another new policy dictates that the CRO is responsible for making initial disqualification decisions. Her decision can then be appealed to the electoral monitoring committee (EMC) and they can choose to uphold or overturn it. Also, a limited amount of appeals will be directed to UWSA council, depending on the type of appeal being made.
Last year, disqualifications were evaluated based on a demerit point system, allowing a certain amount of violations to occur before a candidate could be disqualified.
This year, violations will be dealt with on more of a case-by-case basis.
“We will be informing candidates of violations they have committed in writing—by email—on a daily basis,” said Sangrar. These evaluations will reflect the nature of the offence and the totality of the circumstances.
Sangrar explained that this new, day-to-day evaluation will allow her to keep a record of each candidate’s offences.
“The reason we decided on this system is so that candidates can’t budget for breaking the rules. That was our biggest concern. I don’t want a candidate to be able to say, ‘I’ll stick a poster here, because the cost-benefit is better.’ I wanted to get away from that completely.”
Sangrar also added that this new procedure will help to differentiate between oversights and deliberate mistakes.
“[Candidates] are deemed to have read the by-laws and policies,” Sangrar said.
On Tuesday, Mar. 3, the UWSA will be hosting an All Candidates Forum at 12 p.m. in the CAW Centre.
The following day at the same time, there will be an executive debate.
Sangrar said students are welcome to attend these two events and bring their questions, or submit them in advance by sending her an email at crouwsa@uwindsor.ca.
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