Changes to the length of the campaign period and new regulations for sabbatical officer elections are set to be discussed on at Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Council this evening.
The discussion item, brought to council by TCDSU Education Officer, Dale Whelehan, will propose new regulations for the elections, which take place annually in February. The proposal will include a mandatory lunch hour between 12pm and 1pm daily and a reformed model for determining when a candidate should be struck off the ballot for breaking rules set out by the union’s Electoral Commission (EC).
The motion will seek to alter Schedule Three of the union’s constitution, which regulates union elections and is typically reformed to some extent every year.
If council suggests no amendments to the change brought by the Electoral Commission (EC), the campaign period, which has ran for two weeks for the last few years, will be shortened dramatically. Speaking to The University Times about the current length of elections, Whelehan said: “Two weeks is just too long. At the end of the first week candidates are tired, it’s affecting their physical health, their mental health, it’s just prolonging an already exhaustive campaign.”
The EC have proposed that campaigning begin on Tuesday, February 14th, with the first hustings commencing at 8pm that night, and will continue until Friday. Voting will take place between February 20th and February 22nd, with the annual Trinity Hall Hustings taking place on the Monday night. The new regulations will see the count take place and the new sabbatical officers announced on Wednesday, reducing the election period down to only nine days.
Whelehan also said that “students don’t want to see campaigners” after even just one week of campaigning, adding that “campaigning in that second week can have a negative impact on campaigns”.
For the mandatory lunch hour, in-person campaigning will not be allowed. Whelehan explained that “candidates put pressures on themselves that they always have to be either in the Hamilton, or in James’s or the Arts Block to be seen”. He hoped that the lunch hour will give candidates the chance to get something to eat.
Another proposed change is to revert back to a strike system for when candidates break the EC rules. Last year, a new model was tested, where each candidate was given 100 credits at the beginning of their campaign and was deducted credits for every rule they break until they reached zero, which could result in them being removed from the ballot.
Whelehan said this change will mean three minor rule breaks or two major rule breaks will result in the candidate being struck from the ballot. However, if a candidate falsifies information or is found to be discriminatory – essentially cheating – this will result in the candidate being automatically struck from the ballot.
“We are going to ask a member of the law school to be available during that period of time in the case of a candidate being near or at risk of being struck off the ballot”, added Whelehan. The EC will decide on what is considered a minor or major infringement.
The changes being put forward this year come from the EC, according to the Chair of the EC, Jenna Clarke-Molloy, speaking to The University Times: “We took on board the recommendations of the Election Review Subcommittee and following that, the EC decided on a reformed Schedule Three.”
Correction: 4.00pm, December 13th, 2016
Due to an error in information provided to The University Times, an earlier version of this article incorrectly said that the changes to Schedule Three was a motion to be brought to TCDSU Council to be voted on. In fact, it is to be brought as a discussion item.
