Deirdre Leahy has been elected as TCDSU Welfare Officer with 1,372 votes on the third count.
In her speech she stated: “I could not have done this without my campaign team.”
On the first count, John Garvey took a miniscule lead with 865 votes, making up 28.59% of the total valid 3026 votes. Deirdre Leahy took 28.49%, just three votes behind Garvey. In third was Nina Crofts with 26.7%. Magadi and re-open nominations (RON) captured 9.3% and 6.9% respectively. As a quota of 1514 was not reached by any candidate, Magadi and RON were eliminated and their 491 combined votes were redistributed on the second count.
On the second count, 305 of Magadi’s and RON’s votes transferred to the remaining three candidates, resulting in 987 votes for Leahy, 948 votes for Garvey and 905 votes for Crofts.
As no candidate had reached the quota the candidate with the lowest number of votes, Nina Crofts, was eliminated from the race and her votes redistributed for the third count.
Leahy did not reach the quota to be elected, but had the most votes all the same.
A poll conducted by The University Times predicted a narrow win for Garvey, securing 33% of the votes. Leahy and Crofts followed closely behind with 25% and 24% of the votes respectively. RON was predicted to take 11% while Magadi took 8%.
Garvey, who was previously Welfare Officer on the JCR committee, ran a campaign that advocated for consent training to be on campus. He also promised to push for Student Counselling and the Dignity and Respect service to provide bystander intervention training available to students.
Deirdre Leahy, studying to be an Occupational Therapist, ran a campaign based on improving student zones on campus and in James’ Hospital campus. Leahy also advocated for consent training for all first year students.
Crofts, formerly LGBT Rights’ Officer for TCDSU, ran a campaign on introducing a fund for students who commute long distances.
Bhargavi Magadi ran a campaign based on inclusion – listing disability issues, LGBTQ+ awareness, and unconscious bias training as part of her manifesto.
