Paper ballots saw a return to campus this year in the By-Elections following a majority RON victory in the Executive Elections for 4 out of 6 SU Sabbatical Officer positions. Martha Ní Riada was elected as Education Officer in the only contested race of the elections.
All candidates who ran in the SU Executive Elections were back on the ballot for By-Elections with all races bar President now contested.
The Election results were announced to a small crowd in the Red Room at approximately 4:15 pm on Friday, the 22nd of April.
Students’ Union Sabbatical Executive Officers:
The Students’ Union’s Sabbatical Executive Officers are elected full-time officers. There are 6 elected officers, Campaigns and Engagement, Education, Entertainment, Welfare, Graduate and the President.
Molly Greenough won the uncontested Presidential race on first count by receiving 1300 of the total valid poll of 1542. Greenough acted as last year’s Welfare Officer. The President is the face of the Students’ Union and the CEO of UCDSU Commercial Services Limited.
Greenough commented in her victory speech, “Thank you so much to everyone who voted either way, I appreciate everyone for engaging with the democratic structures […] I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to working with the Union, I know there’s a lot of work to be done but I know I’m the best person for the job”.
Robyn O’Keeffe won the Campaigns and Engagement Officer race, contested by Eoin Fagan who conceded defeat before the final result was announced via Twitter. O’Keeffe received a total of 1226 votes from a total valid poll of 1580. Fagan received 279 votes. Re-Open Nominations received 75 votes.
O’Keeffe stated in her speech “I want to congratulate Eoin on running a great campaign […] Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me”.
Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich succeeded Daragh Kane-O’Toole in the Welfare Officer race amassing 1012 of a total valid poll of 1554 votes. Kane-O’Toole received 441 votes.
Nic Fionnlaoich stated in her victory speech. “the hard work begins now” and that “I’m really grateful that UCD students trusted me”.
The contested Entertainment Officer race between Josh Kerr Hanratty and Ciara Moroney saw Moroney elected on first count with a total of 1083 votes out of a total valid poll of 1570. Kerr Hanratty received 387 votes.
Contrary to the Executive Elections where no Graduate Officer candidates were on the ballot, three candidates now contested the race with Marc Matouc being elected on the second count. Amit Wasnik was eliminated on the first count. Tranferring all transferrable ballots passed the quota and the final number of votes received by Matouc was 259 votes and Amenda conceded with 132 votes.
Matouc stated, “thank you so much and I’ll make things right here”.
The total poll number approximated at a total of 1,681 votes in the By-Elections. This is a slight decrease from the Executive Elections where the highest total poll number approximated at 1,744. This represents less than 15% of the total student population of University College Dublin, highlighting the much-debated ‘engagement crisis’ facing the Students’ Union.
Graphic Design Credits: Hugh Dooley
The Sabbatical Team is as follows:
President – Molly Greenough
Entertainments Officer – Ciara Moroney
Campaigns & Engagement Officer – Robyn O’Keeffe
Welfare Officer – Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich
Education Officer – Martha Ní Riada
Graduate Officer – Marc Matouc
Irish Language Officer
Shane Mac Amhlaoibh was elected to the position of Irish Language Officer with a total of ___.
College Officer Elections
College Officers are part-time volunteer officers; their role is designed to act as the primary means of communication between students and the SU Executive. The only races ran in this year’s Executive Elections were for the College of Science and the College of Law.
The By-Elections saw the Arts, Humanities and Social sciences saw the race contested by three candidates, the Health and Sciences race contested by two candidates and the Agricultural, Food Sciences and Veterinary race was uncontested by Hannah Tilly.
The full list of elected College Officers is as follows:
Arts, Humanities and Social Science Officer – Caillum Hedderman (first count) and Róisín Alff (second count)
Science Officer – Ryan Corley
Irish Language Officer – Shane Mac Amhlaoibh
Law Officer – Robin Jowett
Agriculture, Food and Vet Science Officer – Hannah Tilly
Health Science Officer – Sarah McGrath
Engineering and Architecture Officer – No candidates ran for this position.
Business Officer – No candidates ran for this position.
Constitutional Amendment Referendum
The Constitutional Amendment Referendum did not pass as the total poll did not reach the 12.5% (3,814) vote quorum for a constitutional amendment.
The referendum proposed was as follows:
The current wording of Section 19.3 of the UCDSU Constitution states:
“A candidate in elections held under this Article must be a member of the Union and shall be nominated by not less than 150 members of the Union. Candidates for the position of College Officer may only be nominated by members of the Union from their respective constituency.”
It is proposed that Section 19.3 to be amended to the following text:
“A candidate in elections held under this Article must be a member of the Union. Candidates for Sabbatical Officer or Oifigeach na Gaeilge must be nominated by a minimum of 150 members of the Union. Candidates for the position of College Officer must be nominated by minimum of 75 members of their respective constituency only.”
Mahnoor Choudhry – Co-Editor
Special credits to Hugh Dooley, News Editor, for his live coverage of Election results.
