Bashir triumphs in second election fiasco
The Oxford Union was branded 'racist' at the end of last term by several national newspapers after Ruzwana Bashir's latest election victory was called into question.
Bashir was accused by Barry Preston, ex-Deputy Returning Officer, of loitering in her college lodge and shouting down from her room in New College for the purpose of soliciting votes.
James Forsyth, Bashir's opponent in the election, was not accused, although the tribunal report shows him to have been, "committing more electoral offences than those alleged against the defendant".
The tribunal found that Matthew Richardson, another presidential candidate, had been a main instigator in the case against Bashir, having commissioned Alan Geering, a student at University College, to film his opponents on polling day.
After hearing evidence and cross-examining all parties the tribunal decided that there was inadequate evidence against Bashir and she was acquitted.
The tribunal panel then investigated the complainants, finding Richardson "extremely open, and... proud about his dislike of Bashir, which he expressed with a strange intensity."
The tribunal concluded that James Forsyth was guilty of electoral malpractice and he was therefore disqualified from the election. Richardson and Preston were both found guilty of lodging a malicious or frivolent complaint and Richardson was banned from standing in on Union committees for a year and fined 50 pounds.
Richardson told The OxStu: "I believe that the result of the tribunal was fair and that... everyone got what they deserved." Both he and the Union have denied any accusations of racism.
Sources close to the Union have said that it is a credit to the society that everyone was investigated so thoroughly and did not limit their investigations to Bashir alone.
Ruzwana Bashir will be Union President in Michaelmas.
22nd Apr 2004