A poll conducted by Trinity News has predicted that Kevin Keane will be the new Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President, while Laura Grady looks set to win the Welfare race. The poll of 1,010 students, which was carried out from Wednesday, February 17, to Friday, February 19, also shows that all uncontested candidates will also be elected.
In the race for President, fourth year Law student Kevin Keane received 36% of first preferences, while his nearest competitor Bryan Mallon, a fourth year Irish Studies student, received 23%. Thomas Emmet, a fourth year History student, received 13% while the option to Re-Open Nominations (RON) received 3%. 25% of students polled selected the “Don’t Know” option.
When excluding those who chose “Don’t Know,” Keane receives 48% of first preference votes, in comparison to Mallon’s 31% and Emmet’s 17% with RON receiving 4%. After the first round the votes for RON would be distributed broadly equally among the candidates, pushing Keane to 49%, just 1% away from the quota. Following Emmet’s elimination, Keane would receive roughly 80% of the transfers, in a final result of 63% of votes to Keane and 37% to Mallon.
In the Welfare race, Senior Freshman BESS student Laura Grady topped the poll with 26% of first preference votes. Fourth year Maths student Damien McClean and Rachel Skelly, a junior sophister Geography student, received 15% of first preferences, followed by Meabh Cullen on 12% and Emma Purser on 8%. In this race, 22% of those polled chose “Don’t Know,” while 1% voted for RON.
In the four uncontested races, all candidates look set to be elected by considerable margins. In Education, Alice MacPherson looks set to win with 62% of first preference votes, while RON received 9%. 30% of students say they do not know how they plan to vote in this race. In Ents, Jonah Craig receives 63.5% of the vote with the highest rate of RON votes in any of the races at 11%.
Meanwhile Úna Harty, the sole candidate for the Communication and Marketing position, is predicted to win with 69.5% of votes – the highest rate of first preference votes in this year’s elections. Harty’s race also receives the lowest number of RON votes at 6%, while 24.5% of students said “Don’t Know”. In the race for editor of the University Times, which is contested for the third year in a row, Dominic McGrath looks set to win with 63% of first preference votes, while 10% of students polled intend to vote for RON.
The poll asked students to fill in a sample ballot for each race, and also gave the option of selecting “Don’t Know”. Factors such as gender, faculty, and year were also noted.
