Junior Milan Chatterjee dropped out of the race for president of Undergraduate Student Government (USG) on Thursday, after citing health reasons that would prevent him from continuing to campaign for the presidency.

However, Chatterjee was found guilty by the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) for over-budgeting his campaign following the committee’s search into his receipt history, according to Carl Johnson, director of Student Life.

“Everyone says we had strong marketing and an awesome platform,” said Chatterjee. “I’m proud of my 3 years with USG and the campaign I ran.”

Before he was charged with the violation, Chatterjee issued a statement to Johnson that said that it would not be good for his health to move forward with the campaign.

“This was a challenging election, [with] the voting system not working [referring to last Monday, when all votes cast during the first day of elections had been voided due to a glitch in the online voting system], extending the election by a day, the investigation and withdrawal of a candidate,” said Johnson via email. “I don’t how we could have anticipated the problems, but I now know that it won’t happen in the future.”

Chatterjee said that earlier in the week he was informed he would need to undergo major surgery.

“[The] surgery would have a fairly long recovery time and I wasn’t sure if I will be recovered in time to fulfill the responsibilities of USG President,” Chatterjee said in a response to dropping out. “After speaking with my supporters along with the USG we decided [this] was the best thing to do.”

It was announced that junior Sam Gerk would serve as USG president after Chatterjee’s withdrawal.

Gerk, a political science major, has no previous experience in USG, but brings with him three years of involvement with the Pioneer Leadership Program.

For more coverage look in Tuesday’s edition of the Clarion as well as at duclarion.com