Board of Governors and student senator-at-large candidate Axel Kong’s campaigning privileges have been suspended for 24 hours due to several unapproved photos and an unapproved event page.
According to an AMS Elections facebook post, “the Elections Committee was informed on March 2, 2020 that Axel's campaign published a Facebook cover photo, event page and photos in that event page. All of these campaign materials were unapproved.”
The post also noted that the committee asked Kong to take down the unapproved campaign material, but at the time the decision was made, most of it was still public.
This is in violation of AMS Code Section IX(A), Article 2 (6)(j) which states, “All campaign material must be approved by the Chief Electoral Officer or the Chief Returning Officer, or their designate in case of a conflict of interest, before it is used.”
Ahsan Sahibzada, the chief electoral officer, said that he emailed Kong late at night on March 2 to remove the unapproved material and communicate that a decision on the violation would be made in the morning.
“In his response he had mentioned that it was his campaign manager who was managing his Facebook campaign. However, as per the Candidates Handbook, each candidate is responsible for the actions of their volunteers,” Sahibzada wrote in an emailed statement to The Ubyssey.
According to Sahibzada, the event page and the unapproved graphics were still public at around noon on March 3, so Kong was informed of the penalty through email and a phone call.
“I’m pretty sure my friend [the one running his social media] and my whole team had really good intentions,” Kong said in a phone call to The Ubyssey Tuesday night. “I’m pretty sure I told everyone in my team that for every picture, every design, you need to get that approved.”
He clarified that he was not blaming his friend, emphasizing his “good intentions.”
Kong added that for anyone who’s running for the first time, it’s very easy to make mistakes.
“Speaking honestly, it’s a bit unfair,” Kong said. “I don’t have much experience with social media. I have a big learning curve.”
This is Kong’s first penalty. It began at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3 and will continue until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4.