Aoibhinn Ní Lochlainn has been elected Welfare Officer for Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union on the first count, with 60.3 per cent of the vote.
Her opponents, Éamonn Redmond and Andrew Wafer received 23.8 per cent and 14.2 per cent of the vote respectively.
On Tuesday, The University Times, in three-day in-person poll of 1,007 students, put Ní Lochlainn as set to take 60.4 per cent of first-preference votes.
The third-year medical student, who ran on the platform of making the position highly visible and accessible within college, and promoting student-led services such as Student2Student and Peer Support, gained 60.3 of the votes, a comfortable lead over her opponents, Éamonn Redmond and Andrew Wafer.
During the campaign, Ní Lochlainn focused on her past experience on the Gender Equality Committee and as the Disability Services student ambassador, to illustrate how she would make the union more approachable to students across college.
Last year’s welfare race was considerably more competitive than this year with five candidates running for the position. On the third and final count, current officer Conor Clancy beat Muireann Montague by 348 votes.
Four candidates initially ran for welfare officer but one of them, Tom McHugh, dropping out early on in the race.
There were few major differences between the candidates, with all focusing on taking the welfare role outside of House 6, and committing to supporting students in off-campus locations.
