Controversy Surrounds Concordia Election, Again

For the sixth consecutive year, controversy has clouded the elections of the Concordia Students' Union. Accusations of administrative malfeasance, procedural irregularities, and bias on the part of the incumbent executive, staff, electoral officers, and university administration are hardly foreign to students' union elections, of course. But it is the rare students' union, indeed, that is able to so consistently attract allegations of improprieties. Here is a brief survey of elections at Concordia:

2001 By-Election

• Concordia Students Union appeal to Labour Unions (Sept. 31) - CSU claims University supporting recall efforts, asks outside labour unions to condemn University actions
  
• Recall petition handed in (Oct. 18) - CSU forced to hold by-election halfway through term due to a petition of 3,173 students, demanding the resignation of the incumbent executive
• Referendum Questions for upcoming CSU elections (Nov. 6)
• CSU election campaigns start today (Nov. 13) - list of slates running in by-election
• Umbrella will shelter students from slime (Nov. 20) - letter-writer accuses "harassment [againt the CSU by] prominent newspapers, Concordia administrators, lobby groups, anonymous right-wing zealots"
• Keefer is the conspirator: candidate (Nov. 20) - candidate accuses incumbent executive of choosing timing of election, number of ballot booths to their partisan advantage
• Referendum questions: why should you bother? (Nov. 27) - The Link alleges that CSU deliberately ran deceitful referendum questions
• CSU hopefuls debate policies (Nov. 27) - Representative Union slate slammed for allegedly being supported by University administration
• Bribery scandal on eve of election (Nov. 27) - Representative Union disqualified for bribery
• CSU Elections hit road block (Nov. 27) - Disqualification of Representative Union reversed
• Candidate receives death threats (Dec. 4) - No commentary necessary
• Representative Union wins CSU election (Dec. 6)
• Why did we bother voting? (Jan. 8, 2002) - Various improprieties summarized
• Interim government ratified by council (Jan. 10) - By-election results delayed due to contestations before Judicial Board
• CSU by-elections annulled in 3-1 vote (Jan. 22)
• Bernans: my face is red (Mar. 12) - CSU staffer criticizes election slate that might have been his future employer
  

2002 Election

• CSU Election slates (Mar. 12) - Team CanDo vs. Representative Union
• CanDo wins election by 327 votes (Mar. 29)
  
• Cando wins, Schulz loses in CSU elections (Apr. 2)

2002 By-Election

• CSU by-elections risk annulment (Oct. 2) - due to various problems
  

2003 Election

• Candidates face off in debates (Mar. 18)
• Election notes (Mar. 25) - Slates accused of tearing down each others' posters
• Alumni could play important role in CSU elections (Mar. 25) - University allegedly violated privacy laws by giving student contact information to Alumni Associatoin
• Evolution wins by landslide (Mar. 28)
• So ya say ya want an Evolution? (Apr. 1)
• CEO disqualifies two councillors (Apr. 30) - for submitting fraudulant campaign finance disclosure forms

2004 Election

• Evolution gets wrist slapped (Mar. 16) - for campaign-related violence by its supporters
• Farrington deceiving students (Mar. 23) - CFS-Q criticizes candidate in CSU election, even as one of their own executives is running in the election
  
• Elatrash support telling (Mar. 23) - Samer Elatrash allegedly lied about having put up posters for slate
• Impeach the president: CEO (Mar. 23) - Chief Electoral Officer publicly demands the head of CSU President for allegedly interfering in the election, then suddenly retracts demand
• New Evolution wins election... maybe (Mar. 30) - New Evolution slate allegedly commissioned a "push-poll" to help them win the election

2005 Election

• CSU Election Results 2005 (Apr. 1) - Evolution wins, again
• CSU election contestations (Apr. 12) - Chief Electoral Officer accused of bias; refuses to punish Evolution for campaign violations

2006 Election

• Experienced at what? (Mar. 21) - Chief Electoral Officer accused of bias in support of Experience slate
  
• Conscious uses posters, decreases voter turn-out (Mar. 21) - Conscious Concordia accused of trying to lower turn-out for partisan purposes
• Ballot box confusion (Mar. 28) - "Conscious" and "Conscious Concordia" slates both on ballot; "Conscious" claims that "Conscious Concordia" is a phantom slate created by "Experience" to confuse voters,
  
• Word of the day: corruption (Mar. 28) - Conscious Concordia called "corrupt" because one of their candidates is living with someone who is suing the CSU
• CSU election results 2006 (Mar. 31) - Experience wins; comments reveal that Chief Electoral Officer walked off with the election tallies, thereby making it impossible to know whether said CEO fudged the numbers or not
  
• I still know how you voted (Apr. 4) - Ballots not anonymous, plus a number of other incompetences alleged on the part of the Chief Electoral Officer
• CSU elections shows signs of Watergate (Apr. 11) - Due to fake slate "Conscious Concordia" being on ballot, led by a supporter of Evolution