Union Court clears President

The Union Court has ruled that Union President Alex Kendall did not act inappropriately when, during the central Union elections when he was Returning Officer, he told a student to withdraw his nomination for the position of Community Action Group (CAG) Chair. The Court also ruled that Kendall had not acted in a biased way in approving candidate material.

The complaint was made on the 30th of May by He-in Cheong after Kendall emailed Student Trustee-elect Abdul at the opening of nominations on the 9th of May, saying that he could not be CAG Chair because trustees cannot hold other positions on another Union Committee and then telling him to “withdraw from the election”. Abdul claimed that he had felt intimidated by the President’s email and was bullied into withdrawing. Furthermore, the complaint made to Union Court argued that the Union President was incorrect to suggest that Abdul could not run for the position, saying that he was allowed to contest the election but would have to resign one of his positions if he had won.

The Court decided that because Returning Officers had the power to force candidates to withdraw from elections, it followed that they also had the power to force candidates to withdraw their nomination if they were ineligible. On the issue of eligibility, the Court decided that candidates should be forced to resign their position if they run for a constitutionally incompatible role.

On the question of whether Abdul had been intimidated into withdrawing from the election, the Court argued that if there was any damage caused by the initial email, it was remedied by the emails that followed. Through several emails on the 9th of May, and a Facebook Chat conversation, Kendall explained in more detail to Abdul his options. The chain ends with an email from Abdul in which he says that he doesn’t have the time or resources to mount a strong enough campaign against his possible opponent for CAG Chair and then goes on to thank the President for his “invaluable advice.” The Court Chair Hamish Common said that although Abdul later claimed that the real reason that he withdrew was because he had been intimidated, there was no direct evidence that he had not meant his words when he said them.

Alex Kendall apologised to He-in Cheong, who brought the complaint on Abdul’s behalf, for the language he used in emails to her while discussing the complaint. In an email sent on the 31st of May, Kendall called her “bloody pathetic” and accuses her of being corrupt. Although his conduct towards He-in Cheong was not the subject of the complaint, Kendall admitted that his behaviour was inappropriate.