Erika Dowdell and Jessica Curtin, the Defend Affirmative Action Party presidential and vice-presidential candidates in the Michigan Student Assembly elections, have been disqualified from the election along with five other candidates.

Dowdell, DAAP"s presidential candidate, failed to attend a mandatory candidates meeting Tuesday. Candidates were informed that failure to contact the election director 24 hours prior to this meeting would result in removal from the ballot.

Housing Program Director Jackie Mims-Hickman and Residence Halls Association President Jason Taylor spoke at the meeting on the new solicitation policy for candidates in the residence halls.

Curtin attended the meeting but was disqualified because of her position as Dowdell"s running mate.

"This is completely ridiculous," Dowdell said. "I"ve missed a great number of MSA meetings in the past."

"The Election Board does not have the right to decide what the qualifications for being a candidate are," Curtin said. "They are bureaucrats on a power trip."

Dowdell and Curtin said the decision was unprecedented because the ruling of the Election Board stemmed from its own rules, not the guidelines listed in the MSA code and constitution.

"I think our decision was fair," said College of Architecture and Urban Planning Rep. Shana Shevitz, a member of the election board. "It is of utmost importance to candidates to understand this new policy that not only University Housing set but that MSA has endorsed."

"There is nothing at that meeting that I wouldn"t have known before," Dowdell said.

Although several Blue Party and Michigan Party members were also disqualified, DAAP is the only party that has appealed the case to the Central Student Judiciary. If CSJ accepts the case, they will make the final decision on whether the DAAP candidates may participate in the election.

"I had a feeling this would happen," said Shevitz. "It still didn"t sway me from believing that they should be disqualified."

Dowdell felt her absence from the meeting was not the only reason DAAP members were disqualified.

"Some people on the Election Board are politically against DAAP," Dowdell said.

Election Board Director Ryan Norfolk said the only reason that any candidates were removed was because of their failure to attend the mandatory meeting.

"It was not targeting any specific party," Norfolk said.

Other candidates in the election had mixed feelings about the board"s decision.

"The rules were very clearly stated, but it seems to me that the Election Board was being harsh," said University Democratic Party presidential candidate Michael Simon.

Engineering sophomore and Blue Party candidate Rishi Narayan felt the board was justified in its decision.

"Even if they couldn"t go or didn"t want to go, all they had to do was send an e-mail," Narayan said. "Being veterans of MSA they should know that it"s easy to get out of these things," he added.