Election turmoil continues to plague Daniel Watts as the Earl Warren College Student Council overturned a presidential decision to reinstate Watts as WCSC president after a college judicial board disqualified him.

Watts was elected to be the 2003-04 WCSC president on April 11. A grievance was then filed against him by Warren student and resident advisor Crystal Kitamura regarding alleged illegal campaigning when he endorsed himself on his Warren College Television program, “”Perfect Vision.”” After the subsequent hearing, the Warren College Judicial Board disqualified him from his position on April 18.

Watts decided to appeal the judicial board ruling to the Warren College Student Council. After reviewing Watts’ case, 2002-03 WCSC President Donald Povieng decided to dismiss the charges against against Watts on April 30.

“”I, as Warren College Student Council president, felt that it was the right decision at the time,”” Povieng said. “”I was trying to be fair.””

Watts’ case did not end there, however. On May 1, the Warren College Student Council decided to overturn Povieng’s decision.

“”The Council voted unanimously to appeal our president’s decision to override the judicial board in the Kitamura v. Watts case,”” said 2002-03 Warren junior senator and the 2003-04 vice president internal Jessica Kepford.

Watts expressed his frustration with the May 1 decision.

“”I was disappointed in their decision to override the dismissal of the ruling of a biased judicial board,”” Watts said. “”I question the legality of the whole thing, but I am just going to do my best [in the future proceedings] and I am confident that the appeals body will be more fair.””

Though their term has now expired, the 2002-03 council decided to extend their voting power solely on Watts’ case until it is resolved and will probably hear the case sometime this week.

Under the WCSC constitution, the new council is set to convene for their first meeting on May 8 even though the president position remains vacant.

“”As the new term of WCSC will convene [this] week with no official president, I will be fulfilling my duties as vice president internal to serve as president in the president’s absence for this first meeting,”” Kepford said.

[Editor’s Note: Watts is associate opinion editor at the UCSD Guardian.]