Sultani reveals allegations towards her

After making the surprising decision to step down from the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union presidential race, Zahra Sultani shed more light on her decision following the announcement of results.

“I — it came to a point that we weren’t really moving forward with our campaign,” she explained.

Asking to expand on what went wrong, Sultani responded, “There was a false equity complaint submitted against me and there were some rumours going around about I guess, about me making racial slurs and making racist comments about other groups of people.”

Unable to share such details on the issue until this evening, she continued, “I talked to the equity officer [at Laurier], we wanted to have a meeting with the person who submitted the complaint but apparently the person is refusing.”

Jesse Finn, chief returning officer overseeing the WLUSU election, was unable to comment on the incident because it is being overseen by the university.

Sultani expressed that the university, and specifically the diversity office, has been supportive throughout the process of trying to resolve the complaint.

“I think I’m submitting a file against that person for spreading that rumour and for submitting a false equity complaint,” she said, adding that she hopes to still sit down with the individual who filed the grievance against her and resolve the issue.

On stepping down from the election, Sultani maintained that it was the right decision. Upon announcing her withdrawal from the race, she had thrown her support behind Michael Onabolu.

“I’m not regretting my decision at all and I’m quite happy with what I did,” she reflected.

Despite the nature of the allegations against her, her attitude towards the election remains positive. “The whole process for me honestly was a fun process,” she said on working with her campaign team.

Satisfied that her former opponent Onabolu came out victorious, being elected the 2012-13 WLUSU president, Sultani concluded, “I want to congratulate all the students for their great voting turnout and I want to congratulate them for electing a great president for themselves.”