Undergraduate Student Government presidential candidate Ali Bhatti and his former vice presidential running mate, Luisa Luo, were issued a warning after a Feb. 3 judicial decision found them guilty on one of four charges of violating the election code. No further sanctions were imposed. Because chief justice Susanna Andryan submitted the complaint, she was recused from the decision.

The majority opinion found Bhatti and Luo guilty of discussing their candidacy during the planning period, which is against the election code. Associate justice Andrew Papazyan dissented, writing that Bhatti and Luo should be found not guilty on all charges.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, Bhatti wrote that the charge he was found guilty of was related to a meeting he had discussing Luo’s replacement after she dropped out of the race. Bhatti wrote in his statement that the situation had “no guidance from the judicial council.” The judicial opinion says he felt he had no other choice but informing individuals due to the circumstances.

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The majority wrote that while the circumstances require “additional consideration,” the conversations should have been one-on-one rather than in a group setting, which could have limited the number of individuals aware of the campaign. The opinion said Bhatti argued a group conversation was more sensitive to the circumstances, which the majority acknowledged but wrote does not “change the application of the law.”

In dissent, Papazyan wrote that the verdict was contradictory to a not-guilty verdict on a separate charge and said the decision is “unworkable.”

The majority opinion found Bhatti and Luo not guilty for revealing their candidacy to an individual because the individual was previously asked to join the campaign team. Papazyan wrote that by asking those at the meeting to join the campaign as vice president, the same ruling should be applied.

In his statement, Bhatti wrote that he hopes the election code can be written with “more specificity” and include more provisions for unusual circumstances to avoid situations like his.

The majority opinion said, in the future, candidates are recommended to reach out to the judicial council with questions about unusual circumstances before taking action.

Bhatti and Luo were also found not guilty of creating online groups to share information about the campaign and approaching USG officers to discuss the campaign due to no evidence being brought to the trial by Andryan.

In his statement, Bhatti wrote that many of the charges brought against him were based on “unverified anonymous sources” that did not appear at the trial.

“I’m glad that the judicial council did the right thing and found me to not have violated any of those charges,” Bhatti’s statement read. “If anonymous sources could claim a candidate did something and have them punished for it, everyone would be submitting anonymous tips with no basis.”

On Jan. 29, the judicial council granted a motion to exclude a witness statement provided by Andryan from the trial due to the evidence being submitted after the initial complaint brought against Bhatti and Luo and less than 24 hours before the trial — both contradictory to the elections code. 

Since the decision, Chichi Makasi has taken over as Bhatti’s running mate.

Disclaimer: Luisa Luo is an opinion staff writer for the Daily Trojan. She is not involved in any coverage of the USG elections.