Over halfway through the 2017 students’ union elections seems like an appropriate time to reflect on the differences between this year and other years, with the most pronounced difference surely being the shortened campaign period. Instead of the typical two weeks of campus campaigning, hustings and visits to Trinity Hall, this year was condensed into a mere nine days. While one might assume this would enliven the campaign period, reduce the fatigue of candidates and make for a far more engaging burst of activity, these expectations have not been met.
In light of consistent feedback stating that the two-week campaign period was highly detrimental to individual candidates and their teams, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) voted to reform both the length of the campaign time and the rules around what candidates could and could not do in that time. But instead of rejuvenating the campaign period and giving candidates a sense of urgency, this year’s campaigns have been sluggish and slow to get off the ground. Many candidates went to Halls only a handful of times, and some even left their visits until Sunday evening.
The campaign period is now a sprint rather than a marathon, and it wouldn’t work with any more competitors. With twelve candidates this year, the new structure is manageable, as campaign teams can funnel their efforts into a shorter time span with relative ease. But we have remarkably few contested races and more candidates would prove entirely unruly. With more than one entertainments candidate, people would be hard-pressed to stagger their big event nights and generate excitement in such a constrained time span. Last year’s entertainments race saw four people compete for the role, all hosting their own unique events, and events clashed even when there were significantly more nights to choose from. This year sees uncontested candidate, Jonah Craig, hosting an event on Monday, when voting has already begun. As the only person going for the position, this works, but event hosting will likely be far more problematic in contested years.
In essence, a shorter campaign period leaves no room to manoeuvre and no space for error. Manifestos were delayed this year, leaving candidates with no materials for self-promotion for a full day. One day out of two weeks is minimal, but when there are only three days of unrestricted campaigning this has a significant effect.
The solution is not necessarily to return to the old way of campaigning, which did seem to exhaust candidates and irritate the student body, but the new rules should certainly be reassessed in advance of next year’s campaigns.
