Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Presidential candidate Rebecca Kelly was issued a minor strike by the Electoral Commission (EC) today.
Speaking to Trinity News, Kelly explained that a member of her campaign team left one of her posters in the Arts Building, which Kelly or other members of her team failed to notice: “It’s so easy to lose track, we have such a large team and so many materials going around.”
“It’s an unfortunate mistake, but honest mistakes happen and we’ll make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
The campaign poster was left in the kiosk in the Arts Building, which are strictly only allowed for campaigning between the hours of 10am to 4pm, with a one hour lunch break from 1pm to 2pm.
Kelly stated that, despite this mistake, she is proud to be running “a clean campaign with great intentions to comply with all rules” and is grateful for her “team for all the energy and help so far”.
As a result of this, Kelly will be banned from campaigning between the hours of 10am and 11am on March 2.
This is the fourth strike issued by the EC this election season. Fellow presidential candidate Gabi Fullam was issued a minor strike early last week when a student outside of her campaign team posted about Fullam outside of campaigning hours.
Ents candidate Nadia was issued a major strike last week for campaigning in Goldsmith Hall outside of campaigning hours. Ents candidate Ross Donnelly was issued a minor strike yesterday for posting on his Instagram account during the EC 13:00-14:00 break period.
Campaigning for sabbatical elections resumed yesterday following a two-day suspension, which was put in place out of respect for a student who passed away in the Library last week. Campaigning will continue until March 3 and voting will begin this evening following Halls Hustings. Registration to vote closed today at midday.
