In a long count which last over 13 hours, a new UCDSU Sabbatical team has been elected for 2018/2019.
It was a long day with several recounts but eventually a new team was elected with some of the races coming down to just a few votes.
In the Graduate Race Niall Torris was re-elected for a second term, receiving 808 (84%) first preference votes compared to RON’s 154. This is despite Torris losing in Carysfort to RON by a by 2 votes which 15 spoiled votes.
In Education, it was a close run race between Stephen Crosby and Christine Brown. It was neck and neck early on with Crosby eventually pulling away with a total of 1734 votes to 1437. In her concession speech Brown commented that it was ‘one of the friendliest races in years’ and ‘if she was going to lose to anyone, she was glad it was Stephen’. Crosby commented he was ‘an hour late to work’ before thanking Brown and his campaign team and rushing out to much laughter.
In Campaigns and Communications it was Thomas Monaghan beat Kevin Brennan with a total of 2066 votes to 1354. In his concession speech Brennan hopes Monaghan would take some of his ideas on board with Monaghan particularly emotional. Monaghan commented he wished he’d met Brennan sooner and thanked UCD, Ents and the Clubhouse Bar.
The Welfare Race went to a full recount between John Kerr and Melissa Plunkett. Kylie Roche was eliminated early and after her votes were distributed, there was a total of 70 votes between the two candidates. In the end after a full recount and analysis of the spoiled votes, Plunkett came out on top taking 1,711 votes to 1,462. Interestingly both candidates won each other’s home faculties with Plunkett taking Arts by 518 to Kerr’s 496. Meanwhile Kerr took Health Science by 196 to 142.
With 6 candidates the Presidents race came right down to the wire. Amy Crean was eliminated first along with RON with 200 votes between them. Juliet McFadden was eliminated next followed by Rosie Aljohmani. Both McFadden and Aljohmani were emotional in their speeches with McFadden calling UCD ‘her home’ and thanking all her campaign team. Aljohmani asked the winner to consider all the points that each candidate made in their manifesto.
Once Aljohmani’s votes had been distributed, there was only 20 votes separating Ryan Oakes in 2nd and Breifne O’Brien in 3rd. This led to a full recount and an examination of the spoiled ballot papers as well. It was a tense time which which at one point led one representative to say “That’s a one, I’ve never seen a clearer one in my life” with another representative arguing back “That’s not even a one in the French style of handwriting”.
In the end O’Brien was eliminated by just 23 votes with his votes being distributed between Oakes and Murphy. In his concession speech O’Brien said he ‘hoped to work with people from all backgrounds and communities’ with his time left as College Officer for Agriculture, Veterinary Science and Food Science.
After O’Brien’s votes were distributed it was Murphy who came out on top with a total of 1556 votes to 1452. In his concession speech Oakes said ‘It’s shit to do this a second time’ but thanked his campaign team and wished Murphy good luck. Murphy in his speech admitted this year had been ‘a disaster of a year’ and commented it was great to see ‘such interest and tightness in the races’. He said he wanted to make progress in accommodation and environmental issues.
Rachel O’Neill – Editor
