This is a developing story and will be updated as additional information becomes available.
Editor’s Note: Alifa Chowdhury is a former Daily staffer. Chowdhury did not contribute to the writing or editing of this article.
LSA junior Alifa Chowdhury and LSA sophomore Elias Atkinson of the SHUT IT DOWN party were projected to become 2025 president and vice president of the University of Michigan’s Central Student Government, according to unofficial results obtained by The Michigan Daily March 29. Now, the party will face a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of their campaign.
Three other CSG political parties with candidates running in this year’s CSG election — MomentUM, United For Michigan and New Ideas — and two individuals, CANDIDATE A, a candidate for the LSA seat in the CSG Assembly, and Rackham student Laurie Tabachnick, brought forth the lawsuit.
The slate of SHUT IT DOWN candidates ran on a platform of halting all CSG activity and associated funding until the University fully divests from companies profiting off Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. According to the unofficial results, the SHUT IT DOWN party won the CSG presidency and 22 out of 45 available CSG assembly seats. The lawsuit challenges the results of both the executive and assembly races.
Included in the lawsuit are claims that SHUT IT DOWN committed various violations of the CSG election code, including campaigning through unauthorized listservs, obscuring opponent’s campaign materials flyers and posters, campaigning within 100 feet of polling sites and promoting endorsements from student groups before they were officially registered with CSG.
The lawsuit will be heard by the Central Student Judiciary, the judiciary branch of CSG, before election results are officially certified on April 9. If SHUT IT DOWN is disqualified, the runners-up for the executive and assembly seats will be declared the winners.
Daily News Editor Mary Corey can be reached at mcorey@umich.edu.