Election Scandal for Another Union Club

The Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) has joined the Christian Union in having a major election dispute this year after a number of its members wrote a joint letter of complaint to the Imperial College Union reporting that ballot papers were destroyed and that the current committee holds a weighted vote allowing them to chose the new committe. David Goldsmith, Union President, has declared the original election invalid citing multiple violations of the Union's Bye-laws for Minor Elections. The new election will take place on May 2nd 17:00 in Meeting Room 3 and the Deputy President: Finance and Services will be acting as the Returning Officer.

The list of reasons why the election needs to be re-run (as stated by the Union President) are that:

• publicity and voting cards were in Chinese
• individuals who are not full members of the Club were allowed to vote
• the election was not run under the Single Transferable Vote or Alternative Vote (as appropiate)
• Objections to the results were ignored A facebook event has been set up by the user "Ordinary Person" called: The Corrupted ICL Society Of CSSA and how you can help which has a partially redacted copy of the original letter of complaint sent to the Union and the subsiquent responses from the Union. In the event description students are called on to join the CSSA to "prevent the second ballot from being controlled by the current committee members and pave way for a truly clean and fair election." Critisms of the facebook event have been raised based on its potentially slanderous comments about a large number of the members of the CSSA and the fact that comments which give opinions differing to the of the creator having been deleted.

For many Clubs elections are low key matters and often candiates run without opposition (save re-open nominations if clubs are following the Union Bye-laws properly). However they are an important part of a Club's governence and in ensuring that members get their voices heard. With tthe CSSA being the second Club to have a major election complaint this year, it raises questions as the how well Club elections are actually being run. It is widely know that many clubs struggle to get the attendence necessary for their Annual General Meeting to be valid - the Union rules say 50%+1 of the Club's membership must be present. This year saw a number of Clubs run their elections using the Union's voting website as part of the Big Elections rather than at a Club meeting so are we seeing the rise of the new voting system for Clubs? When asked whether the Union has any plans to change the election procedures, the Union President replied: "We constantly review the support we give to all Club, Society and Project processes and will consider recent events in any future reviews."