Jumble at John's
Controversy surrounds St John's JCR after allegations of electoral malpractice were strongly denied by those overseeing last week's JCR elections.
Claims have been made to the Oxford Student by students at the college that up to fifteen ballot papers were tampered with with a view to being removed by members of the JCR Committee, but these appear unsubstantiated and have been firmly denied by several members of the Committee and the Returning Officer, Alastair Douglas.
The allegations have emerged at the end of a week which saw a backfired prank by fifteen members of the college during JCR hustings, held in St John's Hall last Tuesday.
Towards the end of the Presidential hustings around fifteen students turned off the lights in and burst into the meeting armed with plastic guns and wearing balaclavas. Within moments of entering, a couple of students who had been attending the meeting set upon the group and punches were thrown.
Organisers of the prank have said it was an attempted protest at JCR politics and its lack of relevance to students. One of the protestors had run a joke campaign for JCR President in the college last year. However, the prank appeared to have fallen flat and led one student to comment that the protest was "tasteless" and some people, especially first years, found it "alarming".
Several students involved in the practical joke have alleged that the JCR Committee and the Returning Officer acted in a corrupt fashion during the subsequent elections, and have alleged that the ballot papers of those responsible for the prank were marked as if they were later to be removed.
The Oxford Student has confirmed that a list of offenders was pinned to the desk where the ballot box was situated to identify culprits and it is reported that this was expected to be given to the Dean of St. John's, Dr Kemp, at a later date.
The pranksters claim this was as a punishment for their actions in Hall two days beforehand, however, and have questioned the validity of checking off offenders of any crime at an election. One student, who was involved in the incident in hustings, said: "We don't want another election as that would be unfair on the winning candidates, but it would be good to hear an explanation from the Committee on what they did. It's incredibly hypocritical of the Committee to think that they can do whatever they want and get away with it."
The allegation that ballot papers of those responsible were marked to later be removed has been refuted by many of those involved with the running of the election. Returning Officer Alastair Douglas, argues that there was confusion caused by the marking of ballot papers to distinguish between male and female voters as men cannot vote for the Women's Officer. According to him there was no removal of ballot papers.
However, both the President and the RO have admitted that there was a list of offending students pinned to the desk behind the ballot box and though the possibility of marking and removing the offenders' votes was raised by the JCR President, Danny Wilson, the RO and ex-JCR President Tim Boyd shortly before the election, this was immediately overruled as it would be illegal and contravene Section 27 of the Education Act (1992).
An electoral tribunal in the college was held on Tuesday to decide what was to be done about the interrupted hustings. The possibilities had included barring those responsible from voting in future elections, barring them from standing in elections and preventing them attending hustings. In the end the tribunal did none of these, deciding it was simply a misguided prank. It was decided that the constitution should be amended so that disruption of hustings counts as electoral malpractice and carries a heavy fine.
The RO has called the elections "the best ever" claiming they went far more smoothly then any previous election. As of yet there have been no formal complaints either to the RO himself or to the Electoral Tribunal. He concluded by saying that the ballot papers were still available for inspection and anyone could view them if they so wished.
22nd Nov 2001