Decision of the Elections Commission Regarding Initiative Coordinator Nasser Ssenyange
April 18, 2026
Preface
On November 6, 2024, the ASUCI Judicial Board released Opinion on Investigative Authority in Elections-Related Cases, delineating the ASUCI Elections Commission’s procedural obligations into two broad categories — administrative and adjudicative. To quote the opinion:
Under its administrative capacity, the Elections Commission operates much like the Federal Elections Commission or its various analogues in the several states, making preliminary quasi-judicial decisions to enforce the elections procedures it has been charged to uphold and, if necessary, defending them in full courts of law.
The ASUCI Constitution presents us with a unique departure from this pattern, however, in that it delegates to the Elections Commission the position of a full judicial body. Whereas the aforementioned analogues to the Elections Commission may focus solely on their administrative capacities, outsourcing all judicial functions to distinct courts of law, the Elections Commission’s primary jurisdiction forces an ordering in such cases where these roles may contradict one another. (Bolek et al., 2024)
Following the revision of the ASUCI Elections Code on February 20, 2025, the Judicial Board added on March 15, 2025, that “[their] ruling in [Opinion on Investigative Authority in Elections-Related Cases] was found to remain in force” with the revisions.
In observing an explicit violation of the Elections Code, the Elections Commission has determined that an administrative approach would be most appropriate for the circumstances at hand.
Synopsis
Per Art. XI § B of the Elections Code of the Associated Students of the University of California Irvine (ASUCI), “All Candidates and Initiative Coordinators shall submit a Candidate Financial Statement or Referendum Financial Statement respectively to maintain a degree of transparency as to the fiscal nature of their campaigns.” The section further states that “Financial Statements shall be open on the Elections website no later than Monday of Winter Week 8 at 9:00 am and close on Friday of Spring Week 3 at 5:00 pm.”
On April 17, 2026 — the Friday of Spring Week 3 — at 6:09 p.m., the AGS Elections Officer, Amelia Roskin-Frazee reached out to the Senior Architect and Technical Lead from OIT who oversees the submission and posting of Referendum Financial Statements. The AGS Elections Officer confirmed that Nasser Ssenyange, the Initiative Coordinator for the Safeguarding our Cultural and Identity Centers Student Fee Referendum, did not submit a Referendum Financial Statement prior to the 5:00 p.m. deadline on April 17, 2026 for Candidate and Referendum Financial Statements. This information was shared with the ASUCI Elections Commissioner. Pursuant to the Elections Commission’s authorities as an administrative body, the following decision is released.
The Elections Commission has deemed the Initiative Coordinator Nasser Ssenyange in violation of Art. XI § B of the ASUCI Elections Code. Accordingly, the Elections Commission has levied a Level 5 sanction – Campaign Disqualification – on their campaigns.