Barry Murphy has been re-elected as President of University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU) with 40.9 per cent of the vote.
Murphy was first elected president in November, in a by-election, after Katie Ascough was impeached just weeks before. Over 3,800 students turned out to vote this year, a nearly 15 per cent increase from last year’s election turnout. However, over 6,000 turned out to vote in the impeachment referendum in November.
He was one of six candidates running for the position of president, which is the highest number of candidates seen in UCDSU for the role in recent years. One candidate, Amy Crean, was the spokesperson for the impeachment campaign against Ascough. She was the first to be eliminated from the count.
Ryan Oakes, Breifne O’Brien, Rosaleen Aljohmani and Juliet McFadden also ran for president.
O’Brien faced criticism for alleged homophobic comments after the University Observer reported that complaints had been made about an incident to the union sabbatical officer.
Murphy, who was originally elected last year as Campaigns and Communications Officer of the union, ran on a platform of putting pressure on the college to keep student interests on the agenda.
Speaking to The University Times today before the result, Murphy said that he thought “students are more cautious about who they’re electing this time”.
“Over 62 working days as president, I’ve tried to rebuild the reputation of the union”, he said.
Róisín Power was reporting from UCD.
