An electoral complaint has been brought against Union president-elect Max Ghose, calling for his resignation as Returning Officer.

Ghose won the Michaelmas 2023 presidency last term, in a landslide victory against his opponent. In a document seen by Varsity, it was claimed that Ghose provided his own campaign account from last term to one of the presidential candidates running in the current election. The complaint argued that Ghose handed the candidate “a clear unfair advantage” in the election by “allowing” his campaign account with existing followers “to be utilised as an electoral tool”.

Ghose has also been appointed as a Returning Officer — which means he is responsible for overseeing the election and enforcing electoral rules. Under the laws of the Union’s constitution, Returning Officers are required to resign immediately if they face any conflict of interest.

The complaint claimed that handing over his campaign account showed a “blatant” conflict of interest on Ghose’s part, and called for Ghose’s resignation as Returning Officer.

The complaint suggested that the account has now been used in three separate election cycles, with two username changes — first used to campaign for positions serving Easter 2023 in November 2022, then to support Ghose’s campaign for Michaelmas 2023 as ‘backmax4pres’, and, most recently, to support one of the current campaigns for Lent 2024 under another username. The Union election rules prohibit the use of third-party social media pages for campaigning.

This term’s presidential race is between two candidates — one each from the University’s Conservative (CUCA) and Labour (CULC) societies. Recent elections have been rife with accusations of backroom-dealing and rumour-spreading, and the complaint against Ghose comes after a secret Union panel investigated claims of ballot tampering last term. The investigation found that the appointment process of Lent term’s Returning Officers was “procedurally irregular” and “improperly followed”.

Voting in this round of elections closes tomorrow (16/06). Results are set to be announced in the evening.

The Cambridge Union and Max Ghose were contacted for comment and have not responded.