MSU presidential candidate disqualification retracted

Presidential candidate Jialiang (Kevin) Hu was disqualified from the 2024 election for ten campaign violations, but was reinstated following his appeal hearing on Feb. 8

The McMaster Students Union presidential election came to a close on Jan. 25 and Jovan Popovic was announced as the winning candidate with 3620 votes. In this announcement from MSU Elections, candidate Jialiang (Kevin) Hu was noted as being disqualified from the running as a result of seven standard violations and three severe violations, which totalled in fines greater than half of the election budget.

A comprehensive list of Hu's violations and an official statement are available on the MSU Elections website.

"Due to the amount of fines exceeding half the spending limit, Jialiang (Kevin) Hu has been automatically disqualified under 7.12," reads a quote from MSU Elections on their website.

Rule 7.12 of the MSU presidential election rules states, "the Elections Committee shall automatically disqualify a candidate if they have accumulated fines exceeding half of the spending limit, accumulated seven severe and/or 14 standard violations, or if it finds that a candidate has deliberately sabotaged another candidate’s campaign."

Hu's violations included, but were not limited to, misrepresentation of campaign expense sheet, campaigning in group chats, forcing individuals to vote and contracting a vendor outside of the Underground printing service.

In an interview with the Silhouette on Feb. 10, Hu expressed his distaste with the elections protocol for making his disqualification public without undergoing the hearing first.

"It's an unofficial result at that moment. They still post it on Instagram, on their official Instagram. It is made public. The result being made public without going through a proper trial, without going through full investigation, without hearing the side of the candidates. . . you can see why it is very unjust," said Hu.

Upon being notified of his disqualification, Hu decided to appeal all of his violations. The appeal hearing took place on Thursday, Feb. 8 and resulted in two of Hu's violations being overturned. The two violations that were overturned were violations 4.2, forcing individuals to vote, and 7.11.4, misrepresentation of expense sheet.

His disqualification was then retracted and his voting ballot opened and counted. An update was posted on the MSU elections Instagram with Hu's results included, but the result of the election did not change with the addition of Hu's ballot and Popovic will continue to serve as MSU president in 2024/2025 term.

When asked about his 4.2 violation by forcing individuals to vote, Hu responded that this claim was entirely unfounded and the evidence provided for this claim was unsubstantiated.

"In the meeting minutes provided, certain members of the committee said that they also witnessed this act [of forcing an individual to vote], but they don't provide any testimony. . .This is also a conflict of interest because you cannot be the witness, the jury, the judge and the executioner. This is like North Korea style trial," said Hu.

Despite Hu expressing his satisfaction with the hearing outcome on his Instagram story, with the caption, "justice has won at last", Hu also said in the interview that he felt all of his violations were unfounded and not based in adequate evidence.

"Those [violations] were the only two overturned, but I did provide concrete evidence regarding other ones. I don't understand why the committee didn't overturn these other violations. I'm slightly disappointed," said Hu.

When asked about his violation for contracting vendors outside of the Underground, Hu stated that although he did utilize a third party service to print his lawn signs, he had received explicit permission from the Chief Returning Officer to campaign with lawn signs.

"So you're you are allowing me to use lawn signs, but the Underground doesn't make them, so where should I make them?" said Hu.

Hu currently serves as one of the engineering representatives in the Student Representative Assembly. When asked he was if he was planning on applying to other MSU roles in the future, Hu stated that he has considered running for a vice-president position, however he also added that he had concerns about the current practices within the MSU.

"I'm hesitant after what happened this time. . .personal bias and pettiness could get in the way of clear judgment for some people. We are all students who do not have a good understanding of the justice system and how elections are supposed to be run, how appeal process and the whole system is supposed to run," said Hu.

Hu concluded his interview by sharing some closing sentiments about the MSU electoral process being flawed.

"[MSU] elections are more like high school elections. It's more about how many friends you have, how many people will like you, rather than if your policy will actually benefit the student population. Despite being in university, it is still like high school. Favouritism still overwhelms rationality," said Hu.

With Hu's appeal hearing coming to a close, the 2024 presidential election results are now official and Popovic will begin his second term on May 1.