UB student politics are nothing if not full of drama, and the two elections for the UB Council Student Representative are no exception.
After what was deemed an illegitimate round of elections from April 6-8, a second round of elections was held last week. While the results of the second election won't be official until late Monday, Maaz Memon, the winner of the original election, is hoping to stop it in its tracks.
Memon won the first election by 419 votes but was deemed ineligible to run after the election committee received "complaints" about him — the subject of which have yet to be made public.
Memon believes his competitors and others on the election committee are unfairly targeting him because they did not want him to win. He also feels that the election committee neglected to follow the stated rules and regulations that they're bound to by the university.
Memon has been in talks with a law student about the legality of the matter and has submitted an 18-page statement to the committee outlining all of the reasons he feels he's been treated unfairly during the election process.
"The rules that the election committee has made for handling complaints are clear," Memon said. "The accused candidate must have a hearing and must have the opportunity to present evidence and a defense. Additionally, no election process will be invalidated on the basis of a complaint."
According to Memon the election committee did not inform him as to what the complaints pertained to, nor was he given any information regarding or inviting him to a hearing. Instead, the committee ruled in a closed session that he was never a candidate — something that is also against election rules.
"This ruling was made without a hearing and without any ability of me to confront my accuser," Memon said. "I do not know what the complaint was about. All of this has been ruled outside of my presence."
Memon appealed the ruling, but to no avail. The election committee said he didn't have the right to appeal because he wasn't a valid candidate (as per their first ruling). In other words, Memon wasn't allowed to appeal the first ruling because of the decision made in that ruling.
The committee said in an e-mail to Memon: "Your appeal has been denied on the grounds that you were not eligible for candidacy on the petition date, March 15, 2010."
Michael Lewis, the student government liaison in charge of the UB Council election, feels that due to the current circumstances, a second election is essential to maintaining a fair student government.
"The re-run of the election was necessary to correct the problem with the original election, which was determined to be invalid. I am not able to release specific reasons as to why Maaz Memon was not allowed to run due to student confidentiality reasons," Lewis said.
Memon feels that the complaint may have been about his unfinished community service hours, which he says he forgot about. During the Student Association elections in January, Memon was given five hours of community service because one of the students campaigning for him broke some rules. Because he was the candidate, he took the blame.
When Memon discovered that he had forgotten about these hours, he finished them the next day.
"I didn't break any rules or do anything violent," Memon said. "Further, the person who gave me these community service hours was Josh Boston."
Josh Boston was Memon's closest competitor in the UB Council election and did in fact hand out community service hours during the SA election in his capacity as chair of the Elections and Credentials Committee for SA.
Boston does not feel that he has any part in the controversy.
"I don't want to comment on the situation because I don't feel that it involves me," Boston said. "But the issue seems very cut and dry. [Memon] shouldn't have been able to run in the first place. It's a black and white issue."
Memon is fighting for his right to the rules and regulations as presented by the election committee for UB Council. He also doesn't believe that he should be disqualified for five community service hours.
Lewis certified Memon's petition. Memon feels that from that point forward, he should have the right to due process under the rules.
The election rules state that "the student must be in good disciplinary standing (through the Office of Judicial Affairs) at the University at Buffalo."
Memon never received a letter from judicial affairs saying that he was in bad academic standing or had past due community service hours. Plus, his petition was certified in the first place and he feels that changing his status after the fact is wrong.
"No penalty was given to me by the Student-Wide Judiciary, nor was notification given by the Student-Wide Judiciary, Office of Judicial Affairs or the Office of Student Life that I was not in good disciplinary standing until the surprise result of the committee's investigation and ruling," Memon said.
Other rules that Memon claims the committee broke in regard to his situation include not allowing him to present a defense, not providing him with a copy of the complaints against him and not applying proper provisions for a second election. Per the rules, a special election must be held and new candidacy petitions must be taken. This did not happen — the second election was only a "rerun" of the first, but with Memon absent from the ballot.
Memon also said that the committee did not release the official election results in the required 48 hours, did not complete candidacy certification properly and that his community service hours were owed to a separate committee and therefore do not apply to UB Council election — even though he has since completed them.
Memon also claims that his rights as a resident of New York State have been neglected, as all UB employees are also employees of the state.
"[Michael] Lewis's conduct in not having a hearing and in revoking my candidacy without affording me the occasion to present any evidence, witnesses or defense is state action," said Memon, citing the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees the right to due process. "The state action has deprived me of the liberty to be the duly-elected selectee for University Council student representative. It has deprived me of the property right of being the office-holder to that position."
Memon wasn't able to stop the second election. Boston won the second election, as per unofficial results released last Thursday. According to those results, Boston won with 233 votes, 45 more than his second competitor.
"I feel pretty good about my victory," Boston said. "I think it was a good choice for student affairs to have a second election in light of the controversy in the first election."
Memon is hoping to discredit these results in his fight against the election committee because he feels he should have been on the ballot again.
Memon is demanding that the election committee certify the original election results, in which he won by a 60 percent margin, and either certify that he won the position or hold another election with all of the original candidates.
"The university is denying the will of the students in choosing me as their representative. Furthermore, denying me the process promised to me by the rules I followed is a violation of my constitutional rights by the university," Memon said. "Therefore, I am demanding that the original results be certified and that I have my election to the position of UB Council student representative be certified."
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