Student Senate votes to lessen sanction against Fonseca-Narimatsu ticket

Author: Cassidy McDonald

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UPDATE: Juniors Becca Blais and Sibonay Shewit won the 2017 student body election, Judicial Council announced Friday at 1:50 a.m.

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Notre Dame Student Senate voted to lessen sanctions against student government candidates Rohit Fonseca and Daniela Narimatsu Felippe, the Election Committee announced via press release Friday at 1 a.m. 

Fonseca and Narimatsu will lose 5 percent — rather than 7 percent — of their votes in the election for student body president and vice president, the committee said.

Senate upheld allegations that Fonseca and Narimatsu broke election rules by purchasing Facebook advertising without prior approval.

Senators voted, however, to remove an earlier allegation which implied the candidates violated a rule mandating the disclosure of election material costs.

The now-removed law reads: “Failure to disclose the proper cost of any election materials is a highly serious breach of campaign rules. Penalty shall be forfeiture of candidacy.”

In the event of a runoff, Fonseca and Narimatsu will not be allowed to campaign during the first 24 hours of the campaigning period.

Becca Blais, current candidate for student body president, faced a similar sanction in 2016 when she ran for vice president with Corey Robinson, current student body president; Robinson and Blais conducted an interview with a media outlet prior to the sanctioned campaign period, and were suspended from campaigning from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2.