Editorial
Nothing signifies a new year in Trinity like the spectra of SU sabbatical elections. Over the course of the next two weeks, fifteen candidates will battle for your vote as the seek to become TCDSU’s next President, Education officer, Welfare officer, Communications officer and Ents officer.
The campaigning period kicked off in earnest last night, with the traditional midnight poster run. Facebook news feeds are already electrified with election related content and pleas for support. As expected, this year students are set to enjoy the charms of two joke candidates in the race for Ents, a welcome addition after a noticably subdued Ents contest last year. Cameron McCauley and the enigmatic “Shmeesh” are sure to keep us entertained over the course of the campaigning period.
On first viewing, it appears that this year’s elections are set to be highly contested affairs. Each candidate brings to a table varying quantities of charisma, experience and tenacity. Moreover, many of this year’s candidates come from backgrounds not traditionally associated with SU sabbatical candidates, a trend which has grown in momentum in recent years and can only be welcomed as the Union seeks to reach more of its members and shake of its negative image problem.
Over the course of the campaigning period, each candidate will jockey for attention, crafting a mix of humour with serious policy discussion. For better or for worse, past sabbatical elections have tended to come down to a personality contest, with little attention being given to what the candidate would actually do in office and whether their election promises are credible.
As many students’ only interaction with the SU comes during such elections, detailed promotion of policy by candidates may be counter-productive, as an electorate unfamiliar with the workings of a Union divorced from their day-to-day lives may be more endeared by a catchy and fresh election campaign.
Candidates at last night’s poster run. Photo: Owen Bennett
While the electorate may be more forgiving to candidates, our student media must not. Our journalists have an obligation to scrutinize candidates’ manifestos and election promises intensely. Given that in many respects much of the activities of the SU are unknown to the majority of students, candidates can ofter succeed in offering voters things they cannot deliver. There is an imperative on our two student newspapers to ensure candidates are held to account. It is our primary obligation to our readers.
This year’s sabbatical election period will contain the added spice of both a referendum and a preferendum (this newspaper will soon be launching a campaign to have the word ‘preferendum’ outlawed from SU hack jargon). All indications suggest the safe passage of the constitutional change to recognise gender identity. However, while that referendum may lack rigour, the preferendum on abortion is sure to attract significant interest. At the recent SU Council which mandated the preferendum to be held, a lively yet civil debate took place over the abortion question. Should Class Reps be considered representative of their views of their classes, then it appears Trinity is a pro-choice college. The debate has now shifted to what degree of the pro-choice movement the SU should align itself to, something which will hopefully be resolved by means of preferendum.
The stage is now set for two long weeks of campaigning. Many of those who have contested previous sabbatical elections compare them to a war of attrition, an emotional rollercoaster, a period of the upmost drama. The University Times wishes the very best to every candidate, and looks forward to covering their efforts closely as the campaigns intensify.
