Early Campaigning/ Departmental staff endorsement
It has been brought to the attention of the Adjudication panel that on the 14th October a candidate emailed a departmental administrator asking them to promote their election in an internal email group. This the member of staff subsequently did on the 14th October.
The election rules state that no campaigning can start before 9am on 15th October and that closed groups should not promote individual candidates unless all candidates are given equal status. The Adjudication panel were also concerned that a member of University staff was promoting an individual candidature, which can be construed as undue influence.
The Adjudication panel ruled that the candidate should not email anymore in closed groups/email lists and they are fined 5 penalty points (If fines go over 15 penalty points there is automatic disqualification). Also due to the early campaigning the panel has ruled that they must stop all campaigning at 1pm on Thursday 17th October. Including the removal of any posters by that time, no further leaflets distributed and there is no communication both physically and virtually (i.e. on social media) after 1pm on Thursday.
The University department has also been contacted asking them not to support individual candidates in the elections.
Campaigning in a closed Facebook group
It has come to the attention of the SU Adjudication panel that a candidate posted in a closed group informing that they had voted and that they had voted for candidates that they then listed in the closed group.
The Adjudication panel has ruled that this is campaigning in a closed group, which other candidates do not necessarily have access to, so therefore it breaches the rules. The candidate has been told to remove the post by 4pm.
The Administrator of the closed group has been contacted and have been told that if they open the group to all candidates, then Warwick SU will inform all candidates and then the original candidate who posted will be able to repost in the group.
Adjudication Panel
Please take note of these decisions of the Adjudication Panel and avoid replicating them or breaking other rules. The rules are there to ensure a free, fair and transparent election. Non-compliance with Adjudication decisions could result in more sanctions up to and including disqualification.