By Jerry Zhang
313 demerit points have been assigned across three slates after the voting period in the Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU) general election, according to the election rulings page last updated on Wednesday.
The election rulings page revealed 22 new rulings added to the previous seven from Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Tatiana Carrion. 10 demerit points across 11 rulings were issued against Team Re-Elect, 218 demerit points in seven rulings against Team Reform Now, 85 demerit points in five rulings against Team Reborn and 0 demerit points in one ruling against Team Falcon Force.
Team Reform Now and Team Reborn were disqualified from the general election after exceeding the 35 demerit point threshold for disqualification, as previously reported by The Eyeopener.
Of the 11 rulings filed against Team Re-Elect, only two resulted in demerit points. Five demerit points were assigned in Ruling #15 and 5 points were assigned in Ruling #26.
All other complaints against the slate—including claims of looking over students’ shoulders while voting, crowing near an entrance to engage with students, causing female students to feel uncomfortable with their approaches and the use of current-year TMSU materials as campaigning methods—were dismissed due to insufficient evidence, late filings and failure to demonstrate violations of the Elections Procedure Code (EPC).
Carrion wrote in the ruling “The complainant did not provide sufficient evidence for the remaining allegations; therefore, those allegations are not substantiated on a factual basis, and there was no violation of the EPC with respect to those allegations.”
Ruling #15, detailed that a part-time TMSU employee affiliated with Team Re-Elect violated section 8.1.2 of the EPC by sharing a voting link in a large group chat on instagram named “TMU Girlies” while actively participating in the election.
The ruling stated she was “confirmed as someone who was campaigning for Team Re-Elect, identified herself as a part-time TMSU employee and asked for votes for Team Re-Elect. Therefore, her conduct violated this provision of the EPC.”
Although Team Re-Elect claimed that the individual acted on her own, the CRO ruled that slates are responsible for the conduct of their Non-Arm’s length parties.
Ruling #26 described a verbal altercation in which Re-Elect candidate and current TMSU vice president operations Muhammad Awais called Team Reform Now candidate Javid Paracha a “pussy.”
The CRO acknowledged that Paracha had also used derogatory, misogynistic and Islamophobic language during the exchange but determined that Awais’ comment consisted of a violation of section 8.1.9 of the EPC, prohibiting actions contrary to generally accepted community standards.
The ruling stated, “The CRO believes that referring to someone as a ‘pussy’ violates such standards” despite the complaint being filed after the 48-hour deadline on March 14.
“Although, section 10.1.1 requires all complaints to be submitted within 48 hours of the close of the voting period, which ended on March 12, 2025 at 5:00pm, the CRO could have dismissed the complaint, but has chosen to still penalize,” read the ruling.
However, this discretion was not extended to several other late complaints filed against Re-Elect including ruling #8, #25 and #28.
Three complaints were raised in Ruling #8 involving current TMSU vice president of education and Re-Elect candidate Aneesa Masood campaigning through a private social media account. The ruling also includes vice president, equity candidate and current vice president, student life & events Koby Biya allegedly posting in a TMSU Montreal trip-related group chat, and TMSU street team leader Vinayak Mathur engaging in campaign-related instagram story posting.
All complaints under this ruling were dismissed as Masood was campaigning through a personal account, Biya’s message fell outside the 48-hour complaint window and Mathur’s post was deemed by the CRO to have been made into a personal account, resulting in zero demerit points.
Ruling #9 alleged that Team Re-Elect violated poster spacing rules of EPC section 8.1.23, which limited how closely candidates could place their campaign posters. The CRO dismissed the claim, clarifying that the regulation only applies to the same posters from a single candidate, not different candidates on the same slate.
Hafsa Iqbal, Re-Elect presidential candidate and current vice president, equity was accused of unsolicited campaigning through WhatsApp in Ruling #13.
The ruling reads Iqbal “confirmed that she reached out to them and asked them to vote and spread the word to make students more aware of the elections.” The CRO ruled this did not violate any section of the EPC as the message was sent to a personal connection and didn’t qualify as a mass outreach.
Ruling #17 and Ruling #20 both involved allegations of Re-Elect members campaigning in restricted areas with QR codes unapproved by the CRO.
Ruling #17 alleges that Iqbal and Re-Elect volunteers campaigned inside the university library with unapproved QR codes. However, the final ruling confirmed the QR code was previously approved by the CRO’s office and deemed the video evidence provided did not support the allegation.
In Ruling #20, Re-elect vice president, student life & events candidate Arzo Aslami was accused of campaigning at a TMSU-sponsored event. However, after interviewing the witnesses named in the complaint, the CRO found no evidence of election-related activity.
“Both witnesses stated that they did not see Arzo campaigning and confirmed that she was present at the event at a friend’s request…they further noted that Arzo only conversed with a few people, and the discussions were unrelated to the elections,” the ruling stated.
Ruling #25 alleged that Mathur had verbally harassed rival candidates from Team Reform Now and Team Reborn in a lab and endorsed defamatory posts on an Instagram account against Reform Now called @save.tmsu2025.
The CRO investigation confirmed that Mathur had liked the posts but cited no direct evidence that he verbally harassed anyone. However, the complaint was dismissed due to being filed after the 48-hour reporting window.
Allegations of an unaffiliated individual who was seen influencing voters and lingering around Team Re-Elect acting as a volunteer or Non-arm’s-Length party were addressed in Ruling #27.
In their response, Team Re-Elect stated in the ruling that “We have no idea who this individual is, but he was seen around us multiple times. We have no clue if he was helping us or if he was just a planted person who could possibly get closer to us during elections and maybe make violations to give us demerit points and make us look bad.”
Ultimately, the CRO found no formal evidence of a connection between the individual and the slate to violate volunteer or non-arm’s-length party EPC codes.
Ruling #28 addresses allegations filed on March 22 that Nadir Janjua, the current TMSU president and a member of the Elections and Referendum Committee, was seen handing out iftar tickets at a Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) event in exchange for support for Team Re-Elect. The tickets, typically distributed by the MSA, were allegedly being offered as favours relating to voting preferences.
However, the CRO dismissed the complaint, stating that “this incident falls outside the 48-hour window required for reporting violations, making it inadmissible under the Election Procedures Code. Additionally, there is insufficient evidence to substantiate the claim that Nadir Janjua was offering iftar tickets in exchange for votes.”
The results of the TMSU election have yet to be announced with over two weeks passing since the voting period closed on March 12.
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