A campaign group advocating for a vote to re-open nominations in the Communications and Marketing race in the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) sabbatical officer elections has emerged this evening.
A spokesperson for the campaign’s Facebook page, which was set up this evening, told Trinity News of their disappointment with the “state of the Comms [sic] race” following the first two hustings. They added that the race seemed at risk of being “neglected and essentially turning into a coronation rather than an election”. Kane is the sole candidate in the Communications and Marketing race.
While they emphasised that the group have “nothing against” the current candidate, Muireann Kane, and that they do not intend to run a negative campaign, they noted that the performances of same at hustings were particularly disappointing as was, they added, the news that Kane would be the only candidate not to run a Facebook page: “[A] major part of the Comms [sic] Officer’s job is to run the TCDSU page after all.”
Kane did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Kane faced controversy from members of Council at Tuesday evening’s hustings following questions regarding the accessibility of her manifesto. It was put to Kane that her manifesto may be inaccessible to visually impaired students, to which she responded that she herself was of “the glasses persuasion”. In a later question, another student suggested that her previous answer was “dismissive” and, when asked whether she would be willing to be educated as to the accessibility of various fonts, Kane responded that she would.
Candidates in this year’s race have faced two hustings so far, the Dining Hall Hustings and Council Hustings, over the past two days. Candidates will next be questioned at the Media Hustings on Thursday evening. Voting will start on Monday evening in Halls, with results announced next Thursday night.
