The Union has never been far from controversy, and this year is no change. Last term, questions emerged over the power of electoral officials. The returning officer and deputies (‘RO world’) had enormous independence, opening the door for malpractice. They removed then-President-Elect Ebrahim Osman-Mowafy in a trial tarred by racism. Briefly, the Union united – its committees declared RO world ‘institutionally racist’ and both presidential candidates ran on a platform of rules reform.
Unity didn’t last. Rule changes to weaken RO world sparked upset through a lack of transparency in their implementation. Restored, Osman-Mowafy pushed the changes through in half an hour of procedural wrangling, winning a vote of bored non-member freshers who didn’t understand the changes. (The Union says that “procedural requirements and mechanisms were strictly followed”, no procedural objections were raised during the vote, and that the reforms were made accessible two weeks in advance.) There are now has two sets of rules and two elected ROs. Electoral officials have been removed and Social Events Officer Shermar Pryce was fired after accusing Osman-Mowafy of overreach and tolerating racism among his own friends.
In pursuit of laudable aims, the President split the Union. Factional disputes distract from Union business, delaying the No-Confidence Debate by over an hour. Constitutional minutiae can be important to those involved, but the infamy and length of this fracas astounds. The Union’s draw is its events and facilities, not students politicking for positions with no appreciable power. That the Union is known for its internecine bickering rather than its opportunities, blemishes its record.
There must be reconciliation between groups who share a common ideal – a diverse and reformed Union – without such divisiveness. Greater transparency and a gradual approach to reforms would do much for confidence.
I think highly of many on the Union committees, but strife serves no-one; few want to join a society that looks inward. The institution isn’t meant to be the story. The sooner factional divides move from the headlines, the better for everyone.
