Three candidates have been sanctioned by the Electoral Commission today for breaches of Schedule 3.
Communications and Marketing Candidate, Paraic McLean has been sanctioned due to an official complaint that was made when it emerged that a member of McLean’s team is not a registered student at Trinity. McLean was issued a minor strike for a breach of Schedule 3 of the EC.
According to a statement given by McLean’s campaign manager: “The student (in question) has yet to hand in the the final draft of their thesis and is due to graduate in April 2018, so we were not aware that they were no longer a registered student. Once it was brought to our attention by the EC they stopped campaigning for us. It’s an honest mistake but these things happen so we are happy to comply with the EC’s ruling.” McLean’s penalty is the confiscation of 15 t-shirts tomorrow.
No strike was issued against Presidential candidate Paul Molloy. However, his team will not be allowed to campaign on campus between 2pm and 3pm tomorrow. Molloy said: “We had a poster up a board that shouldn’t have had been on it. One of my campaign members assumed because a poster was on it that had an SU logo at the time it was okay to have it up and we are very sorry for doing so!”
Meanwhile, Ents candidate David Flood will also not be allowed to campaign on campus between 2pm and 3pm tomorrow. No strike was issued against Flood. Flood said: “A member of the campaign team put a poster in the wrong place.”
Schedule 3 of TCDSU’s Constitution outlines election regulations and dates. Breaches of EC rules usually result in a strike against a candidate, with the candidate removed from the ballot after their third rule break.
Additional reporting by Cian McLochlainn.
