Student Society President-Elect Ousted Following Conservative Activist Comments
The president-elect of the prestigious debating society has been removed from his position after losing a vote of confidence that followed his controversial social media posts about Charlie Kirk.
The motion against the student leader reached the required super-majority to remove him from office, according to an statement from the organization.
Disputed Comments
The dispute began after Mr Abaraonye reportedly shared messages on online platforms that appeared to welcome the death of the American conservative figure, who was shot dead while speaking at a college in Utah.
According to reports, one social media message reportedly read "Charlie Kirk got shot loool" - using an elongated version of the phrase 'lol'.
The president-elect is also said to have posted in a WhatsApp chat with fellow students seeming to express approval of the event.
Election Results
The vote of confidence was conducted over the weekend, with outcomes announced on Tuesday.
Official notices indicated that 1,228 ballots were cast in favor of no confidence, while just over five hundred were opposed the motion.
The notice confirmed that the future president was deemed to have resigned in accordance with the Oxford Union's rules.
Election Controversies
Voting operations were temporarily halted early on the previous day after the election official was allegedly subjected to "obstruction, intimidation, and unwarranted hostility" from several representatives.
In a response, Mr Abaraonye asserted that the count had been stopped because election administrators believed "no legitimate and true result could be reached as a result of process errors".
His statement unequivocally denied that any person acting for the student had engaged in intimidating or disruptive behavior.
Continuing Controversy
The student stated that extremely serious issues had been submitted to the disciplinary committee and that he continued as the elected leader.
His comment added that he was "grateful and honored to have the support of significantly more than half of students at Oxford" who voted to have a "secure voting process and resist attempts to subvert democracy".
Critics have argued that any decision to keep him would "signal to the world that the society has chosen ideology over integrity".
External Responses
On recently, Kirk's former chief of staff read out an open letter to the society on The Charlie Kirk Show podcast.
The message accused the society of becoming a place where "presidents of the union openly applaud the killing of a ideological rival".
The communication indicated that if the student were to remain in post, supporters would "directly reach out to every American political speaker who has ever graced the union's chamber and advise them against future participation".
The society had previously condemned the student's comments after Kirk's death and confirmed that concerns submitted about him had been forwarded for disciplinary proceedings.
The president-elect had been one of several students to discuss with the activist at the union in spring.