Juan Carlos Mora and Adam Galland are representing the Joint Elections Commission in two lawsuits before the Student Court, including one brought by Student Association President Chrisitan Zidouemba. Mora is also the chief counselor to the SA Senate and Galland is the SA’s former legislator general and an opinions writer for The Hatchet.
A president running for reelection was indicted last week, and it’s not who you’re thinking.
The Joint Elections Commission that governs the Student Association’s yearly elections charged and convicted SA President Christian Zidouemba with one count of impersonating another candidate to collect signatures for a candidacy petition last Monday. The JEC’s decision disqualifies Zidouemba from running for president for what would have been the fourth consecutive time and bars him from taking office if elected.
Zidouemba has appealed to the Student Court, asking them to reverse the JEC’s decision, vacate his conviction and reinstate his name on the ballot. We – the chief counselor to the SA Senate and former legislator general – are going to make sure that Zidouemba’s efforts fail.
After the JEC retained us last Wednesday to represent them in three lawsuits – one of which has been settled out of Student Court – related to candidate disqualifications, including Zidouemba’s, and after the past year working with and for him, it has become abundantly clear to us that Zidouemba is an existential threat to the health of GW’s student government. He is wholly unfit to serve as our SA president.
We know this because we’ve spent the past 10 months cleaning up his messes and ensuring that his antics do not compromise the structural integrity of the SA. But they have – with every impulsive and illogical decision Zidouemba has made, he’s desecrated the vision for responsible student government the Board of Trustees set out in the SA’s charter.
Take for instance last November when he overspent money allocated to him for internal executive branch affairs on a catered SA retreat for members. The splurge caused the SA to run a historic executive deficit surpassing $1,000, which cut into funding allocated for events.
And who could forget last May when he thought it would be a good idea to appoint two people to serve as executive chief of staff, which the SA’s constitution prohibits. The move resulted in one of those illegitimate appointees participating in a coup d’etat to oust him, leading to months of SA turmoil that reaffirmed many students’ lack of faith in the SA. We represented him last August when his former chief of staff sued him over this crisis, and we won the case for him. But we’re done defending and excusing Zidouemba’s blatant disrespect of the rule of law and the responsibilities GW students have vested in him.
Zidouemba’s disqualification from the election ballot for SA president is further proof of this reality. His uncertainty over running for reelection put him in an understandably tight spot when he decided to run a matter of days before he needed to submit 385 required signatures to appear on the ballot. But while his predicament was not enviable, he remedied his circumstance by doing what always does when he’s in a bind – barreling ahead without even a glance at what the rules and regulations are, free of any care for the potential consequences.
Make no mistake, despite appealing to the Student Court and playing the role of the aggrieved candidate, Zidouemba bears ultimate responsibility for the instability that is engulfing this year’s elections. The SA bylaws make clear that holding an election is a serious process that requires hard work over a long period of time. The preparation requires meticulous planning of timelines, a swath of advisory opinions that inform how candidates may campaign and due preparation for unexpected complications. That’s why the sitting president is required to appoint a JEC chair nearly a year in advance of an election and appoint the rest of the commission before the end of the school year’s fall semester, giving the JEC ample time to prepare a free, fair and well-run race.
But Zidouemba chose not to do that – the senate did not confirm all members of the JEC until February, a month before elections were set to commence. And when Zidouemba did fill the commission, it was only after months of reminders from the SA’s vice president, the counselors of the senate and Zidouemba’s own staff. Knowing this, is it any surprise that this year’s electoral process has yielded the unprecedented chaos of three separate lawsuits?
Zidouemba’s actions haven’t just hurt his reelection campaign – they hinder the campaigns of every single law-abiding candidate for SA office with unnecessary dither and delay. Let us be crystal clear: Zidouemba is not a victim of the system – our system is a victim of him.
Former presidents of the SA have gone on to lead sovereign nations and trailblazing organizations and advise world leaders. The position is an esteemed tradition of this University dating back to 1909 – a tradition that Zidouemba has failed to honor. His attitudes and actions are inconsistent with those of a respectable leader worthy of reelection.
So while we fight in the Student Court to maintain the rule of law and the stability of the student government, we urge you to do your part. Get out and vote – be the change you want to see in the SA. Vote for whom you believe represents the values and principles that matter to you. Vote for someone who proves themselves empathetic and worthy of stewarding SA advocacy. But above all else, just vote. Leaders like Zidouemba are elected when people don’t participate – his election in 2022 had the lowest turnout rate in a decade.
We, the students of GW, deserve a new SA president who fights for us and our values and respects the rule of law. Together, let’s honor the traditions of student government and allow Zidouemba’s presidency to drift into distant memory.