Miles Behind
SOMERVILLE JCR WAS relieved on Monday after a tribunal ruled that there had been no electoral malpractice in their elections for Treasurer.
The college, apparently known by some of its students as a hotbed of JCR inactivity, became the location for political warfare this week as Ross Miles, who had lost out on the post by ten votes, called for a tribunal to investigate claims of cheating after scrutineers counted five more ballot papers than had been signed for.
The election took place on the preceding Thursday, and saw Nick Clark clinch the position - which also serves as JCR Vice President - with 101 votes against Miles' 91. A third candidate, Laura McMaster, was discounted after the first round. Clark was declared the winner, but when it emerged that five more ballot papers had been counted than registered, Miles called for a tribunal to be set up.
However the tribunal, composed of seven ex-members of Somerville Exec, found that "there was not sufficient evidence" to indicate that malpractice had occurred, and that the discrepancy had arisen out of "human error" on the part of the scrutineers, who had failed to obtain signatures from all the voters before handing out ballot papers. It was judged that "the standard of scrutineering was not as high as it could have been." Returning Officer Ruth Greenwood was not held responsible, though it was recommended that in future she should run a "scrutineering skills session for any scrutineers who have not scrutineered before". The tribunal also recommended a "codified margin of error" to be established in future, to avoid the situation occurring again. This was judged sensible in view of the fact that the tribunal was allowed to be called despite there being a vote discrepancy of thirteen in the OUSU elections held on the same day, which also boasted a lower turnout.
Nick Clark refused to comment on the tribunal, but is understood to be happy with the result. Miles himself called the tribunal "very fair", and JCR President Ian Mulheirn said that he would "stick with the verdict" which was "very reliable".
The general consensus in the college seems to be that of relief that the matter has been put to rest, though a few students appear angry that the tribunal was called in the first place, as it risked "undermining the democracy" of the JCR's original decision.
23rd Nov 2000