By Вen Li
Gavin Preston, incoming Students’ Union Vice-President Operations and Finance, will have to pay $100 for violating an election bylaw in addition to penalties previously imposed.
Unanimously on the evening of Thu., Apr. 17, the Students’ Union Tribunal largely reaffirmed the Review Board’s Mar. 23 decision to suspend Preston’s SU privileges until he takes office on May 2 for violating election bylaws. He will still have to return about $85 in honoraria he received after the election while in office as an Academic Commissioner.
The Tribunal disagreed with the Review Board’s ruling that Preston had not violated governance bylaws by asking then SU Clubs Chair Edward Tse to forward then Academic Commissioner Preston’s campaign platform to all SU sanctioned clubs. Preston argued that he acted as candidate and not as an SU official in asking Tse for advice about access to the clubs e-mail list.
The appellant, Events Commissioner and defeated VP Op-Fi candidate Brett Pearce, sought to overturn the VP Op-Fi election on the grounds that Preston had violated election and governance bylaws, citing pre-campaigning, failure to clean up campaign materials after the election, and the mailing of Preston’s campaign platform to all SU clubs.
At the hearing, Preston claimed-and Pearce did not disagree-that all three Op-Fi candidates had their platforms mailed on the clubs list, offering no candidate a material advantage.
A written decision from the Tribunal is expected on Tuesday, which is expected to clarify specific areas of the Review Board’s ruling.