Student Senate presidential candidate, Belal Kherallah, resigned from his position of chairperson of public relations after being asked to resign on Tuesday – six days before the election.
The resignation request was sent by the Student Body Officers (SBO), who stated a list of the expectations that Kherallah failed to meet since he was appointed. Two of the four officers, chief of staff Camille Sanders and speaker of the assembly Andrew Yohanan, are running against Kherallah.
The list included the failure to update the Student Senate website and social media, poster distribution and violation of SABRC policy, which resulted in losing funding for the Rise of the Red events this semester. The request said the Student Body Officers would pursue the impeachment procedure if Kherallah didn’t comply.
“I took that opportunity to resign from my position because it has been come clear to me that I cannot work with the SBO anymore,” Kherallah said.
Kherallah’s resignation will not disqualify him from the ballot, and he will remain in the race.
According to student body president Mikki Tran, Student Body Officers have been looking into Kherallah’s performance for a while and initiated a meeting with Kherallah in February in regards to the matter. Kherallah confirmed the meeting.
“This was something that was brought up before the candidacy was confirmed … It was like mid-February that we gave him his last warning,” Tran said. “It was an issue that we gave him the opportunity to come back … it was brought to our attention on multiple different cases that members of senate were unhappy with the performances as well.”
Dawson Hubbs, parliamentarian and the chairperson of the election board, said that it is within the SBO’s rights to ask for a chairperson to resign, and he believes that SBO’s decision complies with the constitution and bylaws in this particular case.
“A chairperson is appointed by the SBO, it’s really up to SBO’s discretion on whether or not they deem necessary to ask a chairperson to resign,” said Hubbs, chairperson for internal affairs in the Student Senate. “[The SBOs] consulted me, and as the parliamentarian, they gave me the reasons and I looked at the bylaws, and I was like ‘Yep, those are valid reasons, and they are clear violations to ask for his resignation.’”
Kherallah said he didn’t believe the impeachment procedure would give him a fair trial.
“I have no faith in the system at the moment,” Kherallah said. “I feel like there’s quite a bit of corruption inside the Senate.”
Soon after Kherallah’s resignation, his campaign issued a public statement on social media, questioning the fairness of the decision and accusing Sanders and Yohanan for using position connivances for personal political gains.
The statement was later charged with slandering other candidates by the election board, a major campaign violation that will result $50 fine if convicted. Kherallah’s campaign was also charged with another minor violation for using his position connivance and use Student Senate official account to follow and like his campaign page and posts; a violation will result in a $20 fine if convicted.
Thanks for reporting on this! This is certainly helpful to know before voting.