Students in Dublin City University (DCU) voted overwhelmingly in favour of a boycott, divest and sanctions campaign against Israel, Dublin City University Students’ Union (DCUSU) announced, after a technical fault during the last hours of voting raised questions over the vote.
Some 1,400 voters supported the boycott, while 300 voted against in a referendum held March 5th to 7th.
A system error prevented some students from voting during the final hours of polling, which led to the results being withheld by DCUSU.
The referendum asked students to vote on whether DCUSU should affiliate with the boycott divest and sanctions movement.
Later that month, DCUSU’s class representative council voted to scrap the result, instead deciding to hold the referendum again at a later stage. This referendum was set to take place before the end of the semester, alongside a referendum regarding the union’s drug policy.
In a Facebook post on the DCU Vote Yes to BDS’s page, the campaign called on DCUSU to reconsider the decision: “We’re outraged that CRC and the SU have decided to scrap the results of our recent referendum on supporting Palestine. Almost 2,000 students told the SU their stance on this issue earlier this month and CRC have made the decision to rerun the referendum.”
The statement continued: “This is completely unacceptable. Our student body voiced their opinion and anyone who does not or is unable to vote a SECOND time will have their original vote disregarded.”
DCU Students For Justice in Palestine (SJP) argued during an emergency class representative council meeting that the vote to scrap the result was unconstitutional. However, the emergency meeting did not meet quorum and so a vote to overthrow the decision to reschedule the referendum was unable to take place.
A DCU Vote Yes to BDS Facebook post last night revealed the results of the original referendum, with a vast majority in favour of the boycott, divest and sanction campaign.
This referendum took place following a similar one in Trinity this time last year, when students voted for Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) to support the boycott, divest and sanctions movement with a 64.5 per cent majority.
