UPDATED: Jerin Baby officially disqualified as Lazaridis Students’ Society presidential candidate

On February 4, the final day of voting for all student body elections, the Lazaridis Students’ Society released a statement regarding the disqualification of Jerin Baby for violating regulations outlined in the Elections Policy.

Baby exceeded the number of 10 demerit points twice during the election season. Most of Baby’s demerit points were accumulated due to campaigning infractions that occurred throughout the campaigning and voting period.

All Lazaridis Students’ Society President votes accumulated thus far are spoiled. A re-vote regarding the election of the remaining presidential candidate, Simon Macleod, will be taking place tomorrow from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in which members of the Lazaridis Students’ Society will vote either yes or no.

The Elections Committee made decisions to award demerits. Baby exceeded the amount of demerits and one of the violations was overturned. Baby exceeded the amount a second time and the Appeals Committee decided not to overturn any additional demerits making his disqualification final*.

“It is with regret that the Elections Committee (sic) had to make this decision; however, with the number of violations received by the candidate, the decision was final. Both the Elections Committee and the Appeals Committee are comprised of unbiased, third-party Lazaridis student representatives, ensuring complete fairness. When we set precedences, both committees followed through and were not partial during any of the decisions made,” said Chelsea Lee, member of the Lazaridis Students’ Society Elections Committee.

“Unfortunately, it was due to the actions of the candidate that led to the decision to disqualify him from the election,” said Vanessa Buttinger, Lazaridis Students’ Society President.

As a result of Baby’s disqualification, members of the Lazaridis Students’ Society created a petition to “Bring Baby Back” on the election ballot.

The premise of the petition was to have a total of 601 signatures, which would represent a 50 per cent + 1 majority vote with 6,000 students in the Lazaridis Students’ Society. With an assumed 20 per cent voting rate at the time, this would equate to a total of 1,200 voters in the Lazaridis Students’ Society presidential election.

At this time, the ‘Bring Baby Back’ team has not received any information from either committee regarding the petition.

Jerin Baby is not personally involved in this initiative.

“I would first like to say there are some great people in the Lazaridis Students’ Society, and this effort we have made is not with the intention of painting the Society with a negative image. We are merely students acting with the best interest of the students. We are trying to bring forth a fair, democratic race for the position that leads a society governing thousands of students. Regardless of partisanship, we encourage all students of the Lazaridis School of Busines and Economics, or any Wilfrid Laurier University student for that matter, to be informed,” said Matthew Mansour, member of the Bring Baby Back team, in an e-mail statement.

Mansour concluded by saying there is currently no additional planning following the success or failure of the petition*.

*This article has been changed from its original version*