UWSA by-elections now in campaign period
By Michal Tellos
News
Editor
September 30, 2009
 The campaigning period for the 2009 UWSA by-election officially opened last Friday, and it will carry through to Oct. 5.
This year’s electoral process has seen a few changes from last year.
Chief returning officer (CRO) Omar Raza has been the UWSA Board of Governors representative for the last two years, and he stresses that experience within the electoral system has made a big difference.
“Last year the CRO had never ran a UWSA election. If I had to look at all the stuff fresh, it would have been a bit much, but we know exactly what candidates want and need to hear, so we’re able to put that out there right away,” he said.
Raza has addressed several of the contentious issues that followed the UWSA general election last semester.
Among the most important of these is the presence of an administrative log.
“This time we have a full log of who is accessing the system. You didn’t know who was going in and deleting candidates, because as the CRO I have all the information and I can easily go and not change the votes, but change a candidate’s name for example,” he said.
Raza believes that electoral transparency makes the system better for everyone, as the elections of a given year set the tone for council the following year.
Also on the technological side, this election should see less policing regarding the Facebook profiles of candidates.
“Facebook is for all intents and purposes personal space, except for inboxing and status updates, which is more for the electorate. Because it can get annoying when you get 50 inbox messages. So we’ll be regulating that. You can do minimal status updates, but repeating them every hour is not allowed,” said Raza.
One idea that has been carried over from last year is the mandated recycling policy, which states that a minimum of 80 per cent of campaign posters must be recycled following the election.
Raza felt that this was one of the best ideas to carry over from last year.
Another environmental idea that has been brought forward this year is whiteboards.
“That’ll be free advertising space for the candidates, so they can do whatever they need to. We’ll see how it goes, but we’re going to try and police it as much as possible to make sure it is civil. If it works out well, then the general election will have massive whiteboards,” said Raza, adding that the ultimate future goal is an entirely paperless campaign.
Raza has also removed restrictions on campaigning off-campus. However, campaigning off-campus will not be regulated, and alcohol cannot be around campaigning whatsoever.
The process of sanctions and appeals has also altered slightly in the interest of efficiency.
“The candidate or any plaintiff complaining has to file a statement with a witness. We’ve streamlined those things, and it may seem like a bit of bureaucracy, but it is in the best interest, we think, of the democratic process, and it helps keep it legitimate and consistent for everyone,” said Raza.
Raza, along with the deputy returning officer (DRO) Shae Kavanaugh, stress the integrity of the candidates as crucial to the flow of the election.
“If you know what you should and shouldn’t be doing, then hopefully you will abide by it, and nothing will come as a surprise to you, and nothing will stress you, and it’ll be a much more fun election all around,” said Raza.
Raza also noted that consistent hard work throughout the summer braced him for the elections, and that he was prepared.
Complaints about candidates or the elections in general can be directed to the electoral monitoring committee, (EMC) which is composed of four individuals.
Feel free to contact Madeline MacIsaac at macisa@uwindsor.ca, Ayesha Raza at razaa@uwindsor.ca, Thomas Sasso at sassot@uwindsor.ca, or Tanuj Virani at viranit@uwindsor.ca.
Also, feel free to visit uwsa.ca/candidates to read all candidate statements.
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