Appeals, charges and countercharges continue in the wake of last week’s disputed GUSA assembly election, which involved the disqualification of several candidates and left some assembly seats unfilled.

Though only four candidates sought election to the Class of 2007’s four seats in the Student Association assembly, Khalil Hibri (MSB ’07), Julia de Araujo (SFS ’07) and Salik Ishtiaq (SFS ’07) were disqualified by the Election Commission for an e-mail sent soliciting support for their joint campaign.

Hibri, de Araujo and Ishtiaq appealed the decision, claiming they were not involved in the decision to send the e-mail. The Election Commission denied the appeal on the grounds that the e-mail had been sent by a member of their campaign staff.

The three have appealed that decision to the GUSA Elections Appeals Board. According to Hibri, the three never formally put together a campaign staff or signed any of the bylaw compliance forms because the election was uncontested.

Mark Mancini (COL ’05), the chairman of the Election Commission, said that he expected the Elections Appeals Board to make a decision by today at the latest.

With the disqualifications in place, Representative Ed Duffy (SFS ’07) is currently the only member of the junior delegation to next year’s assembly. Mancini has said that the three vacancies will be filled by the top three write-in candidates who accept the positions. With newly elected assembly members to be sworn in at tonight’s assembly meeting, that information still has not been made public.

Hibri was sharply critical of these plans in a statement, saying that GUSA is using its bylaws in favor of “people with no intent to run and who are not as dedicated as us.”

The crisis may very well return attention to GUSA’s election bylaws one year after the association resolved to reform them in the wake of last year’s disputed presidential election.

GUSA President Pravin Rajan (SFS ’07) said shortly after this year’s presidential election that bylaw reform was one of his priorities. While no one was disqualified from the executive election, Rajan said the bylaws had failed to generate a more enthusiastic campaign.

The current election bylaws are the product of reforms proposed by Rajan and then-Representative Drew Rau (COL ’06) earlier this year.

In the most recent assembly elections, two other candidates were disqualified for not following the bylaws, though both of those disqualifications were overturned. Representative-elect Charles Philipp (COL ’08), who was certified as a winner after his own disqualification was overturned, says he plans to introduce a bylaw reform plan.

“This is the first year these bylaws have been used, and there is obviously an inadequate application of them,” Hibri said.