Voters have chosen to re-open nominations (RON) in the election for editor of the University Times (UT).
The RON ballot option received 59.4% of the vote, while incumbent deputy editor Mairead Maguire received 40.6%. There were 1,807 total valid votes, as well as 33 spoiled ballots.
This marks both the first time RON has won in an election since the ballot option was introduced in Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union elections approximately 20 years ago, and the first time an incumbent deputy editor of UT has not been elected editor since the latter position was made a sabbatical officership.
A new election will be run in the next few weeks, with students able to nominate candidates afresh. Handover from the 2021/22 sabbatical team to their successors does not happen until June.
An active campaign calling for a RON vote in the election was set up at the beginning of the campaign period. This followed the publication of an article by Trinity News, in which students who the deputy editor had previously interviewed for an article about harassment and assault in College societies alleged that confidential elements of their testimony had been leaked.
In last weeks’ Trinity News poll, Maguire was trailing RON by approximately 25 points among decided voters.
Voting was run online this week, opening on Tuesday (March 1) and closing this afternoon.
Additional reporting by Elaine McHale.
A disclaimer on these series on pieces can be found here.
