Georgetown University Student Association representatives voted Wednesday night to leave the certification of GUSA first-year election results tabled until further notice. Due to allegations of racially offensive campaigning during the election, certification was originally delayed last week by GUSA to allow for further inquiry into possible misconduct.
Octavio Gonzalez (CAS ‘06), Mariana Kihuen (CAS ‘06), Dan Monico (CAS ‘06) and Mike Barrett (CAS ‘06) are the first-year candidates who won the election on Oct. 8 but remain unable to take their seats in the GUSA Assembly.
“I feel that people are of two different opinions on this: There are those who want to get this over with since the freshman class isn’t being represented, but I’m for postponement because many were bothered by the racial tensions [in the election],” said Kihuen.
“I’d rather work in an environment where the constituents feel like [the complaints] were investigated,” Kihuen added.
Approval of the first-year representatives now awaits the findings of the Constitutional Council, which will make its recommendation on whether the GUSA Assembly should certify the election of the first-year representatives.
“We are following a very rigid protocol with these complaints,” said Bill McGonigle (SFS ‘03), head of the Constitutional Council. “I’ve heard lots of rumors but very few formal complaints.”
Six complaints were filed after Election Commissioner Ramya Murali (SFS ‘03) extended the deadline for formal complaints to 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11. The only formal complaint filed before the original 8 p.m. deadline on election day was by Octavio Gonzalez (CAS ‘06), who alleged that he was the target of racially offensive fliers during the campaign.
All seven formal complaints were passed on to the Constitutional Council. Murali emphasized that the Election Commission is only authorized to investigate and rule on complaints centering on election day itself. All other complaints are under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Council, Murali said.
Kihuen said that the Election Commission should be more willing to at least investigate these sorts of campaign irregularities instead of waiting until multiple complaints have been received.
When asked how GUSA plans on responding to the pending recommendation of the Constitutional Council, GUSA President Kaydee Bridges (SFS ‘03) said, “The Constitutional Council will rule how they need to rule and we will go from there.”
