Nominations for this year’s Students’ Union sabbatical officer elections opened yesterday and will close this Sunday, January 24. Already rumours are flying as to who will be campaigning next month. Though in most years all five officerships are hotly contested, this year looks set to potentially have three uncontested elections with only one candidate suspected to run for Communications Officer, Education Officer and Welfare Officer.
In the race for President two students have made their intentions of running clear for many months now: Fearghal Hughes (SS Environmental Science) and Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem (JS Engineering with Management).
Both students have been involved in the Students’ Union, as well as a number of clubs and societies, since their arrival in Trinity. Hughes is currently the Faculty Convenor for Engineering, Mathematics and Science and has been campaign manager for two previous presidential candidates (last year’s President, Cathal Reilly, and Cathal Horan, who lost out to current President Cónán Ó Broin). Trigoub-Rotnem is currently the Union’s Assistant Campaigns Officer and before coming to college was President of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Other names in the race for President have also been dropped: Declan Harmon (JS BESS), Mark Moore (SS PCAM) and Barra Roantree (JS BESS). While being a Union outsider, Harmon is an active member of Ógra Fianna Fáil and helped campaign for a Yes vote in the recent Lisbon Treaty referendum. Moore, another Union outsider, was President of JCR Halls last year. It has also been heard that Moore may run for Ents Officer, rather than President. Roantree is currently the Union’s Environmental and Ethical Trading Officer and is a prominent member of the Young Greens.
Currently it is looking like the ballot papers for Communications Officer will feature just one name: JS BESS student Tom Lowe. Lowe is currently the Treasurer of DU Publications as well as the website editor for Trinity News.
Other names have been thrown around for this position, including SS TSM student Caitriona Joyce (currently the Faculty Convenor for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) and JS Law student Ronan Costello (current PRO of Law Soc and former deputy editor of the University Record). At this stage however it looks like Lowe may be the only candidate by the closing of nominations.
For the second year in a row, the position of Education Officer could also be uncontested. SS Genetics student Jennifer Fox looks to be the only person interested in taking over from current officer Ashley Cooke. Fox is currently a member of college’s Undergraduate Studies Committee as well as the class re
p for SS Genetics.
This year’s race for Welfare looks set to have only one candidate as well: current Welfare Officer Cormac Cashman. This is the first time a sitting sabbatical officer has run for election again since 2003 when then Welfare Officer Annie Gatling ran for and won the position of President.
A
number of other students had been mentioned as running for the position over the last few months, including Ann-Maria McCarthy (JS English), Margaret Donnelly (SS Pharmacy) and Stephanie Fleming (SS Physiotherapy). However, since Cashman let his intentions be known nobody has really stepped up to challenge him.
The election for Ents Officer this year may be a two horse race, featuring nightclub promoters Darragh Genockey (JS BESS) and Keith Florea (JS BESS). Genockey is currently the head of the Ents Crew and involved in Trinity Cancer Soc. He also promotes Blasphemy in Spy and is a member of the well-known ‘EdCorp’ conglomerate of nightclub promoters. Florea was a member of last year’s Ents Crew under Nick Longworth. He also promotes Noize in Andrews Lane Theatre.
Another possible Ents candidate is Justin Tallon (SS Engineering), who runs Heat at Tripod and is another well-known member of EdCorp.
Like most other years, this year looks set to feature a number of ‘joke’ candidates. SF History and Politcal Science student Daniel Reilly looks set to run for President, representing the ‘Trinity Intellectual Traditionalist Society’. However, the presence of a Facebook group for the past several months announcing his candidacy may hinder his ability to get on the ballot.
SS TSM student Dave Preston, who last year ran for President as a joke candidate, looks set to return this year in the Education race against Fox. SF Engineering student Conor ‘Timmy’ O’Toole is also thought to be running as a joke candidate. The Comedy Soc committee member currently looks to have his eyes set on the Ents office.
This year also looks like it may be the first since 2006 that current Communications Officer Rob Donohoe will not be running for any position. Having run for Ents Officer in 2007 as a joke candidate and President in 2008 as a more serious candidate, Donohoe won last year’s election for Deputy President/Communications Officer. Donohoe declined to comment on why he would not be running this year, even though there are two Union officerships he has yet to try for.
Since the nominations do not close until this Sunday, there is still time for other candidates to emerge from the woodwork. Campaigning for this year’s elections will start on Monday, February 8, with polling taking place from Tuesday, February 16 until Thursday, February 18. The winners will be announced on the night of the 18th as the votes are being counted.
