By Gabriela Silva Ponte and Jake MacAndrew
The Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU) will hold a new election with an in-person physical ballot for the 2023-24 term, following the disqualification of all Team Revolt elects.
The election will be held from April 11 to 13 and all candidates who ran in the previous election, including those who were disqualified, will be eligible to re-run in the new voting period, according to a special decision released by the TMSU Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC).
“The ERC has determined that the nature and extent of the misconduct that occurred during the voting period of the 2023 election fundamentally compromised the integrity of the vote, and therefore the result of the election,” the statement reads. “The ERC, in exercising its authority under the By-laws and the Code, rules the election results to be invalid.”
The report comes after a series of misconduct rulings against several candidates were released to the TMSU’s website, including the disqualification of Team Revolt from the elections.
The slate—consisting of vice president operations-elect Mahira Shoaib, vice president education-elect Abeeha Ahmad, vice president student life-elect Kareena Bhatia and vice-president equity-elect Trevohn Baker—was disqualified after the March 24 election.
Team Revolt received 60 demerit points for violating four election bylaws—accessing a member’s voting portal on their behalf, campaigning to students while they are voting, misrepresentation of fact and unauthorized campaigning—on multiple instances, as previously reported by The Eye.
According to section 8.3.8.4 of the Elections Procedures Code, any executive candidate who accumulates more than 35 points will be disqualified.
“Penalties for particular candidates were assigned in connection with those violations and as a result a number of candidates were disqualified,” the special report reads. “It is the view of the ERC, however, that even after these disqualifications, the integrity of the election was unacceptably compromised by the totality of the violations found by the ERC.”
President Marina Gerges was not re-elected, despite running unopposed, leaving the presidential position vacant.
The voting period for the initial TMSU elections took place between March 21 and 24 and the results were released at 6:28 p.m. on March 24, as previously reported by The Eye.
Specific times and locations for the new voting period are to be determined at a later date.
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