After what could possibly be the most debated election in North Carolina A&T history, a special election will take place on tomorrow, April 2 for the position of SGA President in Stallings Ballroom from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Following last week’s election on March 25, there has been confusion as to who was elected President of the student body. On March 26, the elections Committee proclaimed Syene Jasmin as the “Offical Winner.”  This occurred around 3:20 p.m. Jasmin captured 1123 votes, or 62.11% of the vote. Love captured 685 votes, which was 37.88 percent.

However, the victory for Jasmin was very shortly lived. Just a few hours after Jasmin was announced President on Thursday; he was disqualified by the elections committee for a reported campaign violation.

The reported violation was explained in an email that was sent out to the student body at approximately 3:30 p.m. Tuesday from Maurice Scott, the Chairman of the Elections Committee.

“As of March 26, 2009 the decision of the elections committee was to disqualify Syene Jasmin from the 2009 elections process due to an appeal that was submitted alleging campaign violations by his opponent, Julian Love. Moreover, the violation may have provided Mr. Jasmin an unfair advantage over his opponent. After review the elections committee has decided to retract this decision and allow the candidates to be put back on the ballot for a re-election.”

Jasmin filed to contest the reported violations. In the appeal, Jasmin pointed out, as per the rules of the elections committee, the reported violation should not have been valid, as it was reported after the close of the polls. 

According Elections Committee Candidate Campaign Guide, Article V: “Alleged violations pertaining to the general election or the run-off election must be submitted before the close of the designated poll site.”

However, according to the Post Elections Guidelines, anyone who discovers a violation of protocol is given up to 96 hours to report a violation to the elections committee. Although Love’s report came after the close of the polls, he was still legitimately allowed to report it.     

Petitions began circulating on Friday across the Internet, on social networking sites like Facebook. 

The purpose of the petition was to call for a re-election, because many of the student body felt the results of the initial election were conclusive.  The margin of victory was so large that it could not be disputed.  On Monday, students took their protest to the Office of Student Development to deliver the petition.

“Students have a right to question,” Dr. Judy Rashid, Dean of Students, said. “If there is a need to revisit the rules, students also have a right to do that. Integrity kicks in when students recognize what the rules truly are through there thinking.”

“Guilford County Board of Elections is actually the body that tabulates the results for us,” Elections Committee Adviser Rosalyn Parker said.

“We have nothing to do with the totaling. They actually come in and count the results from each machine and give us the totals with the percentages and everything. “We (Elections Committee) had concerns on Wednesday, and that was why the results were held.”

Now that the decision has been made, the two candidates are under a few new guidelines. To prevent this from happening again, all candidates have been banned from utilizing any kind of technology, including sending text messages.

The only campaigning allowed will be word of mouth and fliers.”You know, I think everything happens in life for a reason,” Jasmin said. “At the end of the day, justice was served. I told them that I didn’t want to appeal the results to have Julian removed, I said ‘no lets just be fair. I felt like it was the most fair thing to do.’ How would Julian feel if I did that to him?”

Jasmin felt as though the elections had a very negative effect on the campus. He said that people were already apathetic about the democratic process, and this has only given them more of a reason not to vote.

“I asked a student why he wouldn’t vote, and he said ‘because nothing will change,'” Jasmin said.

Love doesn’t necessarily agree with the decision, and felt as though the decision was made to hastily.

“Personally, I fell like the elections committee didn’t go about it the right way, calling for the re-election as the re-election has no substance,” Love said.

“I also feel like we were not given enough time, and that the elections should be on Monday, and not Thursday.

“I also feel like not being able to use technology at all is handcuffing us for no reason.” Scott hopes that this will resolve any confusion and restore some order to the campus.

“We understand that you all want a just and ethical elections process,” Scott said in his e-mail. And, in order to keep intact the integrity of this elections process and the parties involved this consensus was made.

“We want to ensure the Aggie community that your voice has been heard and we are being proactive in ensuring the student voice will not be left unheard.”

The run-off elections for positions such as Ms. A&T have also been rescheduled to tomorrow.  

• Dexter Mullins