UPSU Elections 2007 Ruling 1 from the Returning Officer

Ruling: Schedule 5

The current version on display of Schedule 5 is wrong and the last paragraph should be disregarded

Ruling: Publicity

Publicity shall be defined as any material bearing text or imagery relating specifically to a candidate's campaign that has been mechanically or electronically reproduced. The Returning Officer's decision is final and you are advised to check first

Ruling: Additional Campaign Expenditure

Aside from that defined as 'publicity', each candidate may make additional campaign expenditure to the value of £60 each.

"Additional campaign expenditure" shall be defined as “any expenditure that is carried out with the purpose of promoting a candidate’s election campaign”.

This will include publicity, costume hire, hand made T Shirts , etc etc.

The Returning Officer’s decision on the application of this definition is final, and so you are advised to check beforehand. At the close of balloting all Candidates are required to produce receipts for all of their expenditure on the campaign. Any failure to do so shall result in disqualification.

If the returning officer has evidence that amounts being spent are higher then you may be disqualified from the election.

Candidates should only do what others have had the opportunity to do. This means that any “sponsorship”, “favours” or "special deals" must be available to all candidates in a given election. In any such event candidates must report this to the Returning Officer before using any such “sponsorship”, “favours”, or "special deals"

Candidates must account for as expenditure any of their own property used at reasonable rates (ie what it would cost to buy such materials). Advice on this should be sought from the Returning Officer.

Ruling: The Rules Context

During the election campaign you are likely to be involved in a series of activities. It is important to remember that during the election campaign, you are still bound by sets of rules that, whilst not strictly elections rules, still have a bearing on your conduct.

For the purposes of the elections the following sets of existing rules become elections rules enforceable by the Returning Officer

Union Rules: This includes abiding by the union’s rules generally, its behavioral code and equal opportunities procedure. If you breach these and the RO does not take action under the auspices of the election rules, you may still be subject to the Union’s disciplinary procedure, which in its ability to revoke membership rights may put your candidacy in jeopardy.

University Rules: The University operates a number of rules that relate to your membership of the student community and use of its facilities and property- for example, its bullying and harassment code, damage to university property and buildings etc. If you breach these and the RO does not take action under the auspices of the election rules, you may still be subject to the University’s disciplinary procedure, which may also put your candidacy and student status in jeopardy.

The Law: The fact that you are standing in the election does not remove you from the auspices of the law of the land! Again, If you breach these and the RO does not take action under the auspices of the election rules, the RO reserve the right to refer the matter to the appropriate authorities, which may also put your candidacy in jeopardy.

Ruling: Campaign Teams

The nature of election campaigns are intensive. Because Portsmouth is large this can become very time-consuming and an exhausting period for one person to do alone. For these reasons it is useful to put together a team. However, you should bear the following in mind:

1. You will be held responsible for the actions of any member of your team, as reasonably defined by the Returning Officer
2. The name and contact details of a key campaigner on your team should be given to the Returning Officer and the Deputy Returning Officers. This is in case you cannot be contacted and we need to pass on information urgently.

Campaigning Begins at 9.00am on 12th March 2007.

Before this date you may not "actively campaign"

This means:

• Do not hand out flyers
• Do not display publicity (except where the union does this for you on a specified noticeboard)
• Do not display or obviously use anything you have used your budget on

You may on the evening of YOUR OWN question time only display or obviously use anything you have used your budget on