SGA Campaigning Suspended After Breaches of Election Code of Conduct

The Student Government Association announced March 28 that campaigning for the presidential election has been suspended due to “multiple breaches” of election code of conduct.

The candidates for this year’s SGA election are Adam Penland and his Vice Presidential running mate, Shruthi Vikraman and Brycen Higdon with his running mate, Ryan May.

“It is unfortunate that these allegations have come forth,” read a press release on the SGA Facebook page. “We hold every candidate to the highest standard and continue to wish both tickets the best of luck during this election season.”

Election Marshall Faiz Aly cited that some of the violations included campaign committee members sharing private messages and circulating posts on social platforms.

“Whenever campaign members have broken the rules, it’s as if the campaign ticket has broken those rules,” he said.

Aly said that both campaigns sign a positive pledge before they run.  Both parties agree to hold a positive, healthy campaign.

“It's a competition and at the end of the day each ticket wants to win,” Aly said. “However, we realized that the competition wasn't healthy and it was becoming more and more vicious from both parties.”

Neither party was able to comment on this story, due to their campaign privileges being revoked.

Voting began the morning of March 28 and will conclude March 29 at 6 p.m.

The voting was originally scheduled to end at 5 p.m., but has been pushed back due to the news of the sanctions.

Aside from the presidential elections, students will also vote on who should be awarded faculty member and student of the year.

“I don't want people to be discouraged (from voting),” Aly said. “You're also voting on two other very important awards which are also very well deserved.”

Students can access the voting links on MyMercer, Mercer IT, Canvas or the SGA Instagram.