There will be an additional hustings in this year’s Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) sabbatical elections, with council and equality hustings being split into two different events.
Council hustings will take place on March 2nd at the next TCDSU council at 7.30pm, while equality hustings will take place on March 5th at 6pm.
All hustings will take place fully online this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
This year, 13 candidates will fight for six positions in this year’s Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) elections, with only one race uncontested and the entire campaign season taking place fully online.
The official campaign period will begin on March 1st, with the election cycle lasting until polls close on March 11th.
The campaign will also feature a Dining Hall hustings which will take place on March 1st at 4pm, media hustings – hosted by The University Times and Trinity News – which will take place on 4th March at 6pm and a Halls hustings – hosted by the Trinity JCR – which will take place on March 9th at 6pm.
Candidates in this year’s Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) sabbatical elections will need to campaign to encourage voter registration, the chair of TCDSU council has said.
Campaigning and voting is set to take place entirely online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Hustings organised by the union will take place virtually.
Speaking to The University Times last month, Chair of TCDSU Council Yannick Gloster said: “People need to get engaged a little bit more this year because they actually have to register to vote.”
In previous years students did not have to register to vote. Students do not need to re-register to vote if they registered for class representative elections or the TCDSU referendum held earlier this year. Gloster said that candidates should encourage those who have not yet registered to do so as part of their campaign.
Gloster added that as candidates “can’t get votes if people aren’t registered”, encouraging registration “should be an important part of people’s campaigns as well”.
The election count will take place over a livestream and will feature “interviews with the candidates and that sort of thing to create a little bit of hype and engagement”.
“Our goal obviously is engagement within the union and specifically on my side of things as chair of council, getting people’s voices fairly heard is one of the most important aspects of what I’m trying to do”, Gloster said.
TCDSU will be producing its own get-out-the-vote materials to encourage voter registration and participation across the student body.
