Former SGA President Dwight Ma (17Ox, 19C)

Student Government Association (SGA) President Dwight Ma (17Ox, 19C) was impeached and removed from office early Friday. An SGA email said Ma had exercised “abuse of power.”

The legislature spent at least six hours deliberating the impeachment in a closed-door hearing.

SGA Executive Vice President John Priddy (19C) will replace Ma, who had about one month left in his term. Priddy did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Ma posted on Facebook at 1:22 a.m. on Friday that he had resigned. In an unsigned email to undergraduate students two hours later, SGA announced that it voted to impeach Ma by more than a two-thirds vote. The Wheel has asked several members of SGA for comment, but they did not respond by publication time.

On Feb. 11, SGA unanimously voted to conduct an impeachment hearing after SGA Vice President of Communications Tiffany Haas (19C) called for his removal. She accused Ma of  “intimidation and abuse of power.”

Ma said he never threatened Haas, but he acknowledged that he may have come off as intimidating because English is his second language. He released Facebook messages between himself and Haas in an attempt to clarify that Haas misunderstood him.

“I find these claims of threatening and harassing communications similarly disingenuous and prejudiced against my English-speaking ability,” Ma said. “I feel as though my English has been made out to sound like I’m some mafia gangster who’s threatening a problem if they don’t comply with my directions.”

Ma acknowledged that he had difficulties working with other SGA members, including Haas and former Chief of Staff Ben Palmer (18Ox, 20C), but did not believe he should have been impeached.

“None of these disagreements should rise to the level of needing an impeachment hearing,” Ma said. “I feel like this is opportunism — to take something I have written out of context and a reason for my impeachment.”

The articles of impeachment concerning Ma’s removal will be presented at the SGA legislative meeting on Feb. 25, the SGA email to students said.

Residence Hall Association (RHA) President Aaron Jordan (20C) and Lindsay Gorby (19C) first requested a hearing of inquiry for Ma’s removal in January, alleging that Ma violated the SGA Constitution when he fired Elections Board Chair Justin Cohen (20C). However, SGA decided not to proceed with impeachment proceedings at the time.

Last week, the Constitutional Council ruled that Ma was improper in firing Elections Board Chair Justin Cohen and ordered Cohen’s reinstatement.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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