Vincent Ta/HIGHLANDER
Vincent Ta/HIGHLANDER

The new ASUCR elected senate held a public meeting regarding the appointment of the vice president of finance and president pro-tempore, with the votes being made through a closed ballot. During the meeting, issues regarding alleged biases towards candidates were brought forward by current Vice President of External Affairs Abraham Galvan.

During the meeting, the appointment of the elections director was postponed by a vote of 10-1-3 in order to allow more appointees to be presented to the senate. With the passing of a constitutional amendment this year, the elections director and vice president of finance candidates must be selected by the judicial branch before their approval by the senate.

Vice President of Finance candidates Shafi Karim and Nilan Gunewardena presented first, with Karim being appointed to the position by a vote of 10-4-0.

However, the appointment did not go without controversy as Galvan made allegations that Karim was offered the position by members of the [OUR]Voice party, ”Already we’re seeing how this senate is acting, we have people that are on the horseshoe that are engaged in illegal activities within the ASUCR office … I know that somebody in the room was specifically offered a position in order to help a party and that person is Shafi Karim for vice president of finance.”

Galvan then asked the candidates whether they were offered the position, to which they both denied. Despite these criticisms, Karim asserted that the judicial branch took an important role in assuring that the process was not politicized. “Going through judicial did make it much less political, which I really liked. I think Nilan is a great opponent and I think he could’ve been a great VP of finance.”

In regards to his position, Karim stated, “I’m very excited to be placed in this position and make a positive impact on UCR, ”through goals such as creating a long-term budget to prevent ASUCR from falling into a deficit.

Corey Willis was appointed as president pro-tempore by a vote of 8-5-1, winning against CNAS senator Melissa Vargas for the position.  Willis refused to comment regarding his appointment.