Citing a number of allegedly breached procedures, Kannan Nagarajan, a presidential candidate in the Graduate Student Association elections, filed several complaints yesterday with the GSA Elections Committee.
Kannan, who lost the election to Xun Liu, alleged the Elections Committee counted the ballots at an improper time, gave other candidates more space in an advertisement and allowed candidates who did not satisfy requirements to run.
"They were wrong in multiple places," said Kannan.
The Elections Committee also filed complaints in the Student-Wide Judiciary last week against Kannan, and accused him of bribery and false information after viewing e-mails he sent to the Chinese e-mail listserv.
These complaints come after last year's GSA election results, which were thrown out due to allegations of bribery by a candidate.
Vinay Bendre, current GSA president, said the Elections Committee is consulting legal counsel, but the committee is confident Kannan's complaints will be thrown out.
"He is frustrated because he was losing the election, and now he is taking it out on the whole system," said Bendre. "Everyone is very confident that these complaints are very insignificant."
In his complaint, Kannan alleged the Elections Committee violated procedure by counting the ballots Wednesday night. Elections rules stipulate that ballots were to be counted Thursday morning, according to Kannan.
"I do not know why they would want to count the ballots at night when no one is around," Kannan said.
According to Ashish Joshi, the chairman of the Elections Committee, the ballots were counted Wednesday night to make things easier for their legal advisor, Nathan Vanloon, who oversees the election process.
The ballots were counted at 7 p.m. in the presence of Vanloon, a representative of the Student-Wide Judiciary and one of the GSA senators, said Joshi, who said it was not improper to count the ballots before voting concludes.
"To have fair and impartial elections, the Elections Committee has the ability to change the rules," said Joshi.
Kannan also accused the GSA of not allowing him equal space in a full-page advertisement in the April 7 issue of The Spectrum.
Kannan claimed he was only allowed to submit a 130-word campaign platform, while his rivals were permitted to submit longer statements.
"I have completely followed each and every rule," said Kannan. "Instead of supporting me, they supported other candidates."
The candidates' statements were not limited in any way, according to Bendre, who said there was no 130-word limit on any statements.
"We gave a fair chance to everyone," he said.
In addition, Kannan charged that the Elections Committee unfairly allowed a second debate in front of the GSA Senate, after one of the candidates missed the first debate.
In response, Bendre characterized the second event as merely a chance for the candidates to introduce themselves to the Senate, rather than a debate.
"They are going to work with the Senate, so why should they be afraid of coming in front of the Senate?" said Bendre.
Kannan also claimed the Elections Committee allowed two vice presidential candidates to run despite failing to attend two Senate meetings, a requirement for candidacy.
Joshi said the candidates in question attended a hearing and proved that they were, in fact, present for the two meetings.
"I do not know how he can directly say that they had not," Joshi said.
Presidential candidate Xun Liu, who won the election, said he believed the Elections Committee conducted the election fairly.
"I think that they did a very good job," Liu said. "I do not have any problem with them."
According to Bendre, complaints by Kannan were filed the day he was supposed to attend a hearing to dispute charges of bribery and distributing false information brought against him by the Elections Committee.
The Elections Committee filed a complaint against Kannan concerning e-mails he sent to the president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Communication List.
According to Joshi, Kannan threatened Zhang when the listserv president endorsed a candidate for GSA president.
In an e-mail he sent to Zhang on April 1, Kannan wrote, "both the candidates you are referring to will be disqualified."
Bendre characterized Kannan's e-mails as campaign statements because they asserted Kannan's candidacy. Every campaign statement that a candidate wants to make needs the approval of the Elections Committee, Bendre said.
According to Joshi, the committee wanted to drop their charges against Kannan "out of the goodness of their heart," since Kannan did not win anyway, and did not hold a position he risked losing.
Kannan claimed the failure of the Elections Committee to hold the hearing is a reflection of their true feelings. He said he will bring the issue to the Student-Wide Judiciary next week.
"They do not want me to win," Kannan said. "If I made a mistake there should be a hearing."
According to Bendre, the complaints will not change the outcome of the election.
"No one can halt the process by coming up with senseless arguments," Bendre said. "The show must go on."
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
