The Missouri Students Association Student Court ruled Thursday morning to suspend the current election and call for a special election to be held sometime in the near future.

The court decided to expel the election because each of the three MSA presidential slates had a candidate resign. The ruling defines a slate as a president and a vice president.

This ruling comes following the passage of Resolution 57-45 in full senate last night, which recommends that the Board of Elections Commissioners disqualify all current slates and hold a special election after spring break. The resolution was authored by Senate Communications Director Jake Addington.

“MSA Senate calls for the expulsion of all current individuals from the MSA President and Vice President Election,” the resolution states. “Therefore, be it further resolved by the Missouri Students’ Association that Senate encourages the BEC to hold a special election.”

MSA has yet to pass an act determining the dates of the special election, as the ruling of the court means that the current election dates and slates are no longer valid. Current slates can refile for the special election when the time comes.

Addington wrote a petition before proposing the resolution on the floor. The petition received 88 student signatures in the six hours of asking. 84 of these signatures were non-MSA affiliated students, Addington said.

Addington suggested postponing the election by three weeks. He also recommended a similar campaigning period of two weeks with a one-week voting period.

Since the court ruled in favor of the special election, MSA will also have to pass a new handbook in accordance with the bylaws. The election process will continue from there.

“Even if the court were to accept an individual as a slate, they would still not have proper qualification,” according to MSA Student Court’s decision. “The original slates were supported by 500 student signatures in order to file. By changing the names on the ballot, they have nullified this support as these students did not sign on to an individual candidate.”

_Edited by Skyler Rossi | srossi@themaneater.com_