The University Times Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) poll has seen a high response rate, with 689 votes cast in the poll.
Of the people who responded to the poll 89% plan to vote in the election. 65 students stated they had not decided if they would vote in the TCDSU election, while fourteen students said they would not vote in the election. The poll’s margin of error is estimated to be 3.7%. Last year, there were 2,457 votes cast in the TCDSU Sabbatical Officer race.
TCDSU President Race
The results of the presidential poll show Patrick Keegan and Seán Thim O’Leary with one vote between them, with O’Leary on 209 votes and Keegan on 208 votes. Currently in third place for the Presidential election is the Re-open Nominations vote (RON), amounting to 136 votes. After the RON vote, first-year Giovanni Li holds 114 of votes within the poll.
Due to the neck-and-neck nature of the race, The University Times will not be calling this race.
Education Officer
Former Chair of the Electoral Commission, Conchúr Ó Cathasaigh has a 7.9% point lead in the Education Officer race, with 317 votes in his favour. Buster Whaley – a newcomer to Students’ Union politics – has captured 265 of the poll’s votes. To sum up the race: Ó Cathasaigh and Whaley have 37 votes between them. Considering the slim lead that Ó Cathasaigh has over Whaley, the race could go either way.
Welfare:
John Garvey is in the lead for the Welfare race with 217 votes. Close behind is Nina Crofts and Deirdre Leahy – with Leahy receiving 162 votes and Crofts receiving 158 votes. RON has 71 votes, and Bhargavi Magadi has 54 votes.
The outcome will depend on the candidates ability to capture smaller candidates supporters and will come down to how votes will transfer. Garvey has 32.78% of the vote share, Leahy stands at 24.47%, and Crofts at 23.87%. RON stands at 10.7% and Magadi holds 8.16% of the vote. This race will likely come down to multiple counts before a winner is declared.
Comms and Marketing Race:
Channing Kehoe has 525 votes in the poll, which represents 79% of the vote share for the Comms and Marketing race. The RON vote of the poll stands at 139 votes – which at first glance seems high, however the RON vote has a historic trend of being higher in races where the candidate is uncontested. It is the opinion of this paper that Kehoe’s race will be a straight-forward win.
ENTS:
French Ents Officer Orla Norton has taken the lead at 179 votes, however just four votes behind is former President and Treasurer of Trinity Indian Society Yuv Garg. The two leads in the race are exceptionally close: Norton has taken a 27.9% share of the vote, while Garg makes up 27.3%.
John O’Hara, Captain of the DU Men’s Hockey Club is a close third, with 147 (22.93%) of the poll’s votes. Finn Hallwood, Captain of the DU swim team maintains 85 (13.26%) of votes. RON has 55 votes in total.
23 votes were negated from this race due to a technical error.
With how close the votes are, The University Times cannot call the race for ENTS Officer.
Gaeilge:
The poll has counted Aoife Ní Bhriain with 374 votes (56.07%) and Niamh Leddy with 231 votes (34.6%). While both candidates are strong contenders and have had a non-controversial and amicable run it seems like Ní Bhriain has won voters over with her strong messaging on the need for Irish language supports for those who come from Gaelscoileanna (Irish Language schools). It is the opinion of The University Times that it is likely that Ní Bhriain will win the race considering that she is leading with 22 percentage points of the poll over Niamh Leddy.
The University Times Race
Charles Hastings has captured 352 votes -meaning that he holds a 53.17% share of the total vote. Meanwhile, Sajal Singh holds 218 votes, which leaves her with 32.93% of the vote share. With 20 percentage points of the vote between Hastings and Singh, The University Times believes it likely that Hastings will be elected.
The First-year poll turnout was strong with the Junior Fresh demographic making up 30.5% of votes. The class group with the next highest turnout was Fourth Years – with them taking up 24.8% of votes cast.
The poll opened at noon on Tuesday, 18th February and closed at 3pm on Friday, 21st February. The poll coincided with the Postgraduate Students’ reading week.
