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This article was published 17/07/2020 (1057 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The president and vice-president internal of the Brandon University Students’ Union have dropped their lawsuit against the union after their election wins were ratified.

Olusola Akintola, the president, and his wife Janet Akintola, the vice-president internal, had their election wins called into question earlier this year after complaints about the campaign were made to the student union’s disciplinary board.

BUSU ended the school year without those positions being filled, and the Akintolas filed a lawsuit on May 1 asking for their election wins to be ratified. Several members of BUSU’s disciplinary board had been named as defendants, along with the union itself.

A copy of a letter from BUSU’s legal counsel to the student union obtained by the Sun in May warned BUSU that the course of action taken by its executive council was not permitted by law.

A notice of abandonment for the lawsuit was filed on July 13, according to the province of Manitoba’s online court registry system.

In a statement sent out to students earlier this week, of which a copy was provided to the Sun, BUSU’s disciplinary board determined that Janet should be reinstated as no complaints had been directly made against her.

Students expressed confusion in the student union’s Facebook group on July 6, when Janet appeared in an internal advertisement for BUSU despite still being engaged in a legal fight against the organization.

It turns out that Janet had been reinstated as of June 3 and had then recused herself from conversations surrounding the legal case to avoid a conflict of interest.

As for Olusola, the disciplinary board came to the conclusion that the accusations against him could not be substantiated by the evidence provided. His election win was ratified as of July 13.

Back in April, the Sun reported that three students had made complaints against an unnamed candidate saying that they had pressured them into voting for them. Two complaints were made through BUSU and the third was made through the university’s dean of students.

Olusola sent out an email to students then alleging there was a conspiracy in the works trying to prevent certain candidates from taking office and that certain members of the executive council were trying to maintain unelected power.

An email sent to the Sun from student union general manager Ashley Taron said the parties involved will not offer any further comment on the situation.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark