Otago President-elect Jo Moore has been disqualified on appeal to an Independent Arbitrator from becoming the 2009 Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) President. The Arbitrator was required to consider an appeal brought by another presidential candidate on eight separate grounds but eventually upheld only three; that Ms. Moore had breached the integrity of the election process; the spending cap of $1,000; and being within 20 metres of a “polling station” – in this case a laptop computer made available at a keg party hosted by Ms. Moore and another candidate just prior to the end of voting.

ASA’s Election Policy was developed alongside the old First Past the Post (FPP) guidelines used for NZ General Elections and includes in it restrictions that prevent candidates from soliciting votes during the polling period or using gifts of food or drink and keeps candidate spending within a more accessible $100 limit. It also allows for an appeals process through the Returning Officer, normally a senior University administrator, as well as a three-person independent Appeals Panel but maintains a final right of decision by the Executive Committee. This right has been passed by OUSA to an independent arbitrator; in this case senior Professor of Law, Dr Paul Roth.

In order to avoid a similar situation arising during ASA’s upcoming electronic elections, the Executive committee recently voted to incorporate a definition for a “polling station” that identifies specific locations as “official” and sanctioned and which is identified as such on campus for the purposes of soliciting votes from the membership. This allows, for example, a candidate to wander into the computer labs and sit down next to a person who might log onto the election site to vote and so long as he or she doesn’t then encourage the person to vote or to vote for them, there would be no breach.

Dr Paul Roth concluded that, “Given that Jo Moore ended up with 715 votes out of a total student population of nearly 21,000 fulltime and part-time students, I am confident at least that I will not be running roughshod over the people’s clear choice by thwarting the will of the majority. It is a pity that the student population is so apathetic towards their representation in University affairs, but this is not going to be helped if the electoral process is perceived to be corrupt or unfair.”Under OUSA’s rules, the second-placed candidate, Edwin Darlow has been awarded the position. If he does not accept it, the position will be considered vacant and go to a separate by-election. At this stage, Ms. Moore is considering her legal options and may yet decide to contest the decision in court.