What Really Happened During This Year’s Elections?

1): Item 6, Section C of the Elections code states:

“If a party has not filed with the Elections Committee by the end of the week

during the Candidates’ Meetings, then all candidates for that party shall be

reclassified as independents.”

Members of B.O.O.M and UCReal were not held accountable for this elections bylaw. Instead, Mansoori “requested” that B.O.O.M and UCReal combine to join [YOU]CR. His advise to them to combine parties AFTER THE DEADLINE, is a violation of the elections code. In the emails, Mansoori says that the reason they were allowed to do that was:

“On Friday March 16th, two applications were submitted to the office before 5pm with similar names. Also during those hours, Jose Castrellon’s B.O.O.M. was submitted and disbanded before the 5pm deadline and added to the UCReal party (which had Sahil Patadia and Nielofar Darmani). I requested Esther [Hwang] and Liam [Dow] (the party signatories for [YOU]CR and UCReal, respectively) to coordinate to combine applications with the individuals already registered before the 5pm deadline. I would like to restate that the three candidates were on one of the two party forms that were submitted before 5pm that Friday. I gave them both 24 hours to conclude their decision, and ended up turning in the final application with the [YOU]CR name Saturday afternoon.”

Now the addition of B.O.O.M to UCReal is inarguably justified since it was finalized before that Friday deadline. The true issue lies with UCReal’s (which at this point consisted of both UCReal and B.O.O.M) combination with [YOU]CR.  Mansoori states that there were names that appeared on both the original [YOU]CR roster and the UCReal roster (duplicates) and they were permitted to choose which party they wanted to run with. However, the three individuals, Sai Patadia, Neila Darmani, and Spencer Castrellon, do not fall under this category. They were, in fact, not on the original [YOU]CR party roster. They appeared only on the UCReal roster they were registered to. Why is it that Mansoori still requested that they jump on with [YOU]CR, although he knew that this was unfair to the rest of the parties who had absolutely no idea of these goings-on? The answer is this: Mansoori mistakenly thought that his totally erroneous actions would go unnoticed. It was his dishonest work manifesting behind the scenes, and someone would have had to be very hard-pressed to figure anything out. As it turns out, the whole situation indeed would have gone unnoticed had it not been for a certain [YOU]CR member that explained their methods to me. In casual terms, he revealed the secret to me. I found out about this situation through a party member whom Mansoori was attempting to help. Many candidates on [YOU]CR knew the gravity of the situation and did not uniformly support Mansoori’s actions. They were not able to call out the injustice because they were amongst their “own”. This was so unfair that this student felt compelled to let me know what was going on.  Aside from that, UCReal and [YOU]CR had their own, respective, party signatories. Under the Elections Code (Item 6 Section C), it states:

“If a Party Signatory of a party wishes to transfer the Party Signatory to another

member of the party, s/he may do so by doing one of the following:

1.   Submit in person to the Elections Chair, a written Transfer of Party Signatory

Form for the party. One copy of this form will be kept with the Elections

Chair, and a second copy must be made available to the registrant upon

request; or2.   Submit to the ASUCR Senate a written Transfer of Party Signatory Form for

the party.  Upon receipt of this form, the chair shall announce receipt of

the form which will then be entered into the minutes.”

 Again, since B.O.O.M disbanded and joined UCReal before the deadline, they are not held accountable to this bylaw. However, UCReal still possessed a party signatory, as did [YOU]CR. They were two completely separate parties. Liam Dow was the signatory for UCReal and Esther Hwang was the signatory for [YOU]CR. When UCReal combined with [YOU]CR after Esther Hwang decided to run as an independent candidate, Liam Dow became the new signatory for [YOU]CR. However, Jonathan Mansoori failed to abide to fill out a Transfer of Party this scandal, I requested to see the document. It was never presented to anyone, even when other candidates requested it. It did not exist. Mansoori illegally transferred the signatories secretly, after the deadline. In addition to this, the Elections Code states that the form must be submitted to the senate minutes. I have been a sitting senator for the 2011-2012 school year, and I have never seen/heard a single aspect of this matter during our semiweekly senate meetings. Since the party signatory was transferred to Liam Dow after the deadline, the transfer of the party signatory should have been documented AND entered into the senate minutes for anyone to read. Nothing of this sort was done. Mansoori tried his best to hide these actions because he wanted what he believed best for his friends within [YOU]CR.

Another instance demonstrating Mansoori’s crooked leadership is the fact that he failed to answer a single question regarding other parties. Candidates interested in knowing against whom they were running were turned away by Mansoori, furthermore by virtue of the rude suggestion to “focus on [their] own campaign”. He led candidates to believe that party members belonging to [YOU]CR were top secret. He would not answer any questions pertaining to them. This is another violation of the Elections Code. He wanted to play along with [YOU]CR’s gig of hiding Sai Patadia and Niela Darmani from any campaign material. Personally, I was suspicious of their antics and I sent him a text message in which I asked if hiding individuals from campaign material is permitted. He responded with a yes, knowing what [YOU]CR was trying to do. They wanted to hide some of their candidates to pose less of a threat to opponent parties. This entire situation is a giant violation of the Elections Code (Item 6 Section C), which states:

3. Creation of a New Party

Any student who wishes to create a new party can become the Party Signatory of

that party by being the first person to do one of the following.

1.   Submit in person to the Elections Chair, a written Party Registration Form.

One copy of this form will be kept with the Elections Chair, and a second

copy must be made available to the registrant upon request.

2.   Submit to the ASUCR Senate a written Party Registration Form.  Upon

receipt of  this form, the chair shall announce receipt of the form which

will then be entered into the minutes.

Not only was it Mansoori’s responsibility to answer the questions pertaining to the candidates running with [YOU]CR, he was required to submit the complete party rosters of all running parties to the senate minutes. Again, as a sitting senator I have never even heard him mention anything on this issue during the senate meeting. I had to read the Elections Code myself to understand the elections process and that is when I stumbled upon this clause. The Election Chair’s duties are strictly defined as following what the Elections Code states and making interpretations only where the language is unclear. In this instance, the written requirement to submit a complete party roster to the senate minutes was extremely clear, but Mansoori failed yet again to comply with standards set by the university. Sai Patadia and Niela Darmani were hidden from all campaign materials belonging to [YOU]CR. The rest of the candidates running became aware of the fact that there were two extra candidates on [YOU]CR the week before elections when all candidates were printed in the Highlander newspaper. This lucidly displays that they had to accommodate for bigger competition in the insufficiency of a single week. If the Elections Chair was doing his job and abstained from favoring [YOU]CR and their secrets, this issue would not have come up because the complete roster of the different parties would have been available three weeks beforehand. As if all of that is not enough, a member of R’Voice, Nour Dabbas, was mysteriously dropped from R’Voice as well as the entire elections without her knowledge. Nour Dabbas did not know of this until the Highlander newspaper came out and she was not among the running candidates (Mansoori had not explained nor asked nor given any notifications to her nor anyone else regarding this matter). Mansoori claimed it was a “human error” that she was dropped. I beg to differ. Dropping someone from a roster cannot be regarded as a passive action. Someone actively removed her from the elections. It was done purposefully. However, after some time he changed his story, saying that members of R’Voice told him that Nour Dabbas had dropped and this is the reason he, consciously, dropped her. Even if his story of rumors telling him such nonsense was true, that does not give him the right to drop her from R’Voice. Neither she nor the party signatory for R’Voice ever told Mansoori that she planned to drop. I must be allowed to reiterate that she was not just dropped from R’Voice. Her entire candidacy was revoked without any notice. Mansoori had a mission behind his actions. The proof for this was further exemplified when Mansoori changed his story for a third time saying that Nour Dabbas was hidden from all campaign material produced by R’Voice and was dropped for that reason. To make sure of what he was trying to convey, I asked him (for a second time) if hiding an individual from campaign material was allowed. This time his answer changed: “It is shady and it is definitely not allowed”. Beforehand, when the question was directed at Sai Patadia and Niela Darmani and a possible violation of his preferred party, [YOU]CR, he clearly stated that it is perfectly legal to hide individuals.

Mansoori also took it upon himself to take full credit for the new constitution for the upcoming school year. The new constitution is indeed phenomenal. However, that can be attributed to a third-party staff member that wrote the entire constitution during his time as a UCR student. The constitution did not pass during his time as a student, so he introduced it to Mansoori to put it on the ballot during this year’s elections. Mansoori briefly edited the constitution and wrote a few basic bylaws. For this mere effort, he claims to have spent hours on end with Deryck Ryan rewriting the entire piece of legislation.

Mansoori has a history of switching stories and details in order to wiggle through the complaints that are addressed to him, of which multiple students have realized and can testify to. I have personally heard him say contradictory things about the same issue multiple times to different parties. He may tell R’Voice something, and then tell [YOU]CR the same thing with a completely different perspective and fact bank. One of the many examples of truth to this matter can be found within the emails. In the beginning, Mansoori wrote “I requested Esther and Liam (the party signatories for [YOU]CR and UCReal, respectively) to coordinate to combine applications with the individuals already registered before the 5pm deadline”. Not only did they fail to coordinate before the deadline, Mansoori’s story changed dramatically. When he was confronted about giving his professional advice to [YOU]CR “requesting” that they combine to form one monster party, he stated

“it is not my job to combine parties or candidates after [the] stated deadline. However, this was not the case. I have reiterated this numerous times through different means, the candidates were not combined to form a party.”

His story changed from not just allowing, but requesting, them to combine parties, to stating that he asked nothing of that sort.

All of this unnecessary fraudulence on Mansoori’s part occurred before elections week. How elections week actually went down made things, if possible, even more unfair. Multiple complaints were submitted where [YOU]CR members were soliciting votes at the Orbach and Rivera libraries. Members of [YOU]CR approach students on the library computers and had them log into the elections website and submit their vote, all while they were behind their back intently directing at which names to click. Mansoori falsely pretended like he was going to address this scandal, but when these individuals walked away, he continued his twisted antics. Even after multiple complaints, he refused to take action saying that it was all “here-say and [he] does not allow here-say”. The individuals coming forward were neutral. They did not have a reason to rig the elections, like Mansoori did. Mansoori failed to address these complaints, but was quick to call out R’Voice for being a bunch of “whiners”. He directly told members of R’Voice to focus on their own campaign and to stop accusing other candidates of violating the elections code. Soliciting votes at the library was ignored, but picking up [YOU]CR fliers off of the floor in the INTN lecture hall warranted a certain candidate in R’Voice an elections violation. This particular candidate was not looking destruct anyone’s campaign. He was simply tripping on the fliers by his seat and it was distracting him as he was taking a midterm. To prove his integrity and ethics as a potential representative, this person did not dispose of the fliers in the trash can. Instead, he directly handed the fliers to Jonathan Mansoori. That candidate was me. I was accused of being a negative campaigner because I picked up a “stack” of fliers off of the floor. I picked up 4 fliers at the most, but was made to look like I had purposefully picked up every flier in my way as I entered and exited the lecture hall. How is this fair?

Aside from that incident, I apparently also accused [YOU]CR of laptopping on Monday of elections week at the UV and the dorms. I did say I saw a member of [YOU]CR walking around with his laptop in his hands at the UV. I still stand behind that statement. I did not accuse him of laptopping. All I did was tell Mansoori to watch out for this possible detrimental method of receiving votes. At the end of the day my observation came to hold truth, and Jonathan Mansoori did NOTHING about it because laptopping at the UV “ is out of his jurisdiction”. That may be the case, but I am more than sure that he was relieved that he was not authorized to get his beloved [YOU]CR in trouble. As far as accusing [YOU]CR of laptopping at the dorms, that did NOT happen. I am appalled by his special ability to fabricate such a complaint. In no way, shape, or form do I have ANY business up in the dorms. There is no way I could have seen it, even if anything did happen up in the dorms.

Lastly, I was accused of calling Niela Darmani names. That also never happened. I do admit to losing my temper and telling her to please calm down because she initially began to create a scene in front of my physics professor. This leads me to another point: Deryck Ryan claims that the professor heard me speak vulgar words. The professor was no where near the disruption. We were on the side of the Physics 2000 lecture hall and she was standing a good 15 feet away from us in a roaring class of about 250 students. Other students were there as well and I will guarantee that not a single one of them will attest to any foul language on my part. It is not of my nature to disrespect anyone, even if they are my opponent. I follow my self-values and religion in a very orthodox manner, and it is not incumbent upon to me use foul language or lie about using foul language; quite the opposite. The [YOU]CR member, her own friend, that was with her at the time does not recall me saying anything of that sort.  Lastly, Deryck Ryan says that I ran to the ASUCR office trying to “justify my actions”. Again, this never happened. After I left the physics lecture hall, I ran into two other [YOU]CR candidates and they confronted me about the situation. I was dumbfounded to hear what they had to say. I even offered to talk to Niela Darmani and come to terms with her had she heard me incorrectly. After that, I talked to an ASUCR employee to keep them updated on these occurrences and issues. I did not run to any office as Ryan says I did. I talked to this person by the belltower, and it was a quiet discussion that I thought nobody heard (apparently Deryck was eavesdropping, or else he would have not known that I talked to this ASUCR employee).

Jonathan Mansoori and Deryck Ryan had bias views. Ryan was quick to criticize R’Voice by saying their actions were “crusty” and they were getting “desperate” because they were distributing fliers and campaigning at the off-campus apartments which are not associated with UCR.  However, Ryan did not utter a single comment about [YOU]CR laptopping at the UV.  In support of this argument, immediately after Mansoori became “Elections Chair”, I personally heard him say that he “has a certain party in mind that [he] want[s] to help”. Deryck Ryan added to this by saying “Esther’s slate is totally gonna kick ass” (At the time Esther Hwang was the signatory for [YOU]CR). In the emails, Mansoori states that he will attest under oath that he never made these remarks. If he had not lied through his teeth during his entire term as Elections Chair, perhaps his “statement under oath” would be credible. Aside from that, I heard him say this with my own ears. I heard it from him directly and he spoke it loud and clear, as if he were flaunting this information. Who am I to believe: him or my lying ears? Some people have asked for a reason or motive behind Mansoori’s actions. I have to say, it is really rare to see Mansoori around campus without Sai Patadia, a member of [YOU]CR who “coincidentally” was one of the two people that [YOU]CR was trying to hide from campaign material. Also, both he and Deryck Ryan were on very good terms with the current, corrupt, senate as well all of the members of [YOU]CR. They were all friends. The friendship, in my opinion, is a strong motive for their actions during elections, but anyone is free to form their own opinions on the issue. Lastly, I just want to remind/explain that Deryck Ryan ran with R’Voice for the 2011 elections. The only reason that he got the senatorial position this year is because he used and betrayed the party last year by only getting laptopped votes for himself when the fear of losing dawned on him. Individually, Ryan was a huge advocate for change at the beginning of the year. Look where we are now. What happened?

I want to conclude by saying that in no way was this article stemming from “vengeance” or to destroy Jonathan Mansoori and Deryck Ryan’s reputation. This is also not directed on defining their character, as a whole. The sole purpose of this article is to highlight the methods in which the elections were rigged this year and how Mansoori accomplished a few unfair and seemingly personal agenda items. I feel that it is important that readers of the article understand that my eye witness accounts are true and unexaggerated. There is no way to prove what I have heard or seen in some instances but this issue is very important to me and because this issue has affected me in this way, I am driven to create this argument as a form of justice that has a right to exist; most specifically for R’Voice, Students United, independent candidates, and students like Nour Dabbas. As a student body, I know this issue could have been avoided if students cared to be informed. You were robbed of choosing your [represent]atives. Nonetheless, this is the truth of the occurrences during YOUR student government elections this 2012 school year. Whether you liked it or not, nobody but [YOU]CR stood a chance, which can be fully accredited to the actions of Jonathan Mansoori and Deryck Ryan.

Anyone wishing to further discuss this article (any questions, explanations, discussions, etc.), may of course email me at oshah002@ucr.edu. It is more than okay to disagree with me, but disrespectful emails will be ignored.