Now that a supposed bylaw violation has led to yet another contested GUSA election, it is time to take a critical look at the way these elections are being run. With the leading vote-getters disqualified for the second time in three years, both GUSA bylaws and practices are in need of a serious overhaul.
The current controversy—which centers around the Khalil Hibri-Geoff Greene ticket’s use of a laptop in the dining hall to help students to vote—remains unresolved. Greene (SFS ‘07) claims to have not received an e-mail from the election commission indicating that the tactic was illegal, and alleges that Election Commission Chair Benita Sinnarajah (COL ‘06) told him in a phone conversation that the laptop use was acceptable, which Sinnarajah neither confirms nor denies. The same tactic was used last year by current GUSA President Pravin Rajan (SFS ‘07) without dispute.
Regardless, the ticket was disqualified for the incident, despite winning the election by over seven points. With an appeal of the decision pending, it is time for the election commission to realize that the political death penalty of disqualification is incommensurate with the “crime” of bringing laptops to the cafeteria, especially considering the strange circumstances surrounding the disqualification. Even the Murchison-Ishtiaq campaign asked that Hibri and Greene not be disqualified in their complaint e-mail.
More importantly, this should be an impetus for GUSA to overhaul their campaign bylaws. The idea of bringing a laptop to the dining hall to encourage voting mirrors the real life practice of driving voters to the polls on election day, which is common. This represents only one of myriad ways in which the bylaws are too complex and need to be streamlined, with which Rajan agrees.
The fact that GUSA elections have become a running joke in the Georgetown community should be a sign to the group that some serious change is needed. The organization was not even able to maintain its own voting deadline last Thursday, extending voting by four hours. Having elections routinely decided by the election commission rather than the students of Georgetown is a problem, and it must be stopped now that it is no longer an isolated incident.
Every effort must also be made to straighten out the facts in the current election, and serve justice for all parties involved.
