Though it was a tight race for Ents Officer, Garg secured a lead with Norton in a close second. Overall, Finn Hallwood and John O’Hara lagged considerably but O’Hara did find appeal among some demographics.
Between clean instagram graphics, endearing memes and a crisp slogan, (“bigger, better, more!”) Garg has proven himself an apt businessman and advertiser. Norton did the same, and perhaps tapped into a bit of advertising psychology with her spotify-inspired campaign team shirts.
Aesthetic similarities aside, it is also likely that the official figures will be close because Norton and Garg shared a few major campaign points. They both emphasized using more public spaces for events and, in interviews with Trinity News, both highlighted the atrium and buttery. Similarly, they both wanted to increase the variety of music genres at events and draw on Trinity’s supply of musicians and other talents for such events. At these events, both envisioned better safety protocols. Garg suggested there be emergency-trained bystanders and Norton suggested anti-spiking lids – both are measures Trinity students want to see instituted. Both also noted that Ents’ Instagram graphics needed to be more accessible to the vision impaired.
However, Garg did take accessibility a step further by being the only candidate to suggest sober events and 0.0 alcohol availability at the Pav. Though it is hard to tell how or where this reflected in his poll numbers, it is not far-fetched to say the initiative appealed to many. Indeed, the student body has in recent years elected many candidates who prioritize accessibility, signaling a deeper attunement to the importance of such initiatives. Moreover, all Trinity students want fresh events – a sober night out could become the thing to try!
Ultimately though, Garg’s focus on Irish culture and language likely boosted his campaign. Among his promises was creating a pre-pav Irish language hour, which he prioritized above other initiatives to mention during his interview with Trinity News and at Dining Hall Hustings. His opponents have not had the same focus and two have been criticized “on the lack of Gaeilge in their manifestos.” Additionally, Garg has experience with creating cultural events which his service as “Ents Welfare and inclusivity officer” and Indian Society president makes clear.
His voting demographics of centre right + right and pro-Gov (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael) also support that idea. Garg received 45% of the 71 decided centre right + right identifying students polled. He had a near identical statistic for Gov where he received 46% of the 61 decided, pro-gov identifying students. This is especially compelling because pro-Gov was also in an extreme minority as – outside of the decideds – 104 voted pro-Gov but 640 voted non-gov. Given that centre right + right and pro-gov are synonymous in Ireland, it is possible that the same students who identified as centre-right identified as pro-gov.
In contrast, Norton – who did not have a strong Irish focus – received only 12.65% and 11.94% respectively for the centre right + right and pro-Gov demographics. In fact, she polled considerably behind O’Hara who she beat in nearly every other section.
O’Hara’s appeal to the pro-gov right is less straightforward than Garg’s. Irish was one bullet point on his manifesto and his verbal support was hardly more. In an interview with Trinity News he stated “It’s not only something that I’d like to do [committing to the Irish language], it is now mandated that Irish and English are treated equally across College.”
O’Hara did, however, beat Garg and Norton among first years, securing 36.59% of their vote which was 15% more than Garg. As he is captain of the men’s hockey team, perhaps a group of right-identifying, gov-supporting, hockey-playing first years came out in droves to support O’Hara.
Why did O’Hara and Hallwood receive less support? O’Hara’s adamant devotion to keep the price of TBall tickets the same should have garnered support, especially as current Ents officer Pedear Walsh kept them the same over the last year. Similarly, Hallwood’s strong track record with fundraising should have been a huge draw for the more activist minded students.
Perhaps class was the most significant factor at play. Fourth years were the largest voting group, followed by third years. A hint of premature college nostalgia may have overtaken the fourth years, as it usually does, to participate in school events with extra vigor this year.
Other notable statistics are 25% of eleven polled non-binary students voted RON and Norotn polled eight percent higher than Garg among those in the Student Union (SU). The former indicates that gender nonconforming students may not feel adequately represented by the candidates. This may be part of larger RON rallying that happened this week, though those initiatives have largely focused on the presidential campaign. It may be important to note whether students voted RON in other position elections. If not, this might signal disapproval of the Ents race specifically. The latter is surprising given that Garg currently holds an aforementioned role in Ents, a subset of the SU but Norton never has. Perhaps the SU did not find favor with Garg’s rule violation on Friday.
His, self-proclaimed, “oopsie” occurred when he reminded those studying abroad to vote, violating a rule that forbids teams from “initiat[ing[ conversation with any individual or social media account.” In a statement to Trinity News Garg explained the violation stating “I really wanted students who are studying abroad to engage with the sabbatical elections this year and ensure that those who are elected represent the student body (…) engagement and inclusion from the student body are at the heart of my YUV4ENTS campaign.”
In penalty Garg’s team was barred from three hours of campaigning, however, that strike was not reflected positively or negatively in the polls. As the rule was ultimately harmless, it is unlikely that it will.
For the final, predictable statistics, Norton and Garg dominated in their year with Garg holding an 8% lead. Science students also continued their trend of voting less than humanities students. This may also be because three out of four candidates had Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences faculties.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article said “It is unclear whether Garg knew about the rule beforehand”; all candidates receive a copy of election rules as well as an hour-long briefing before campaigning begins, therefore are expected to be aware of all rules. This line has therefore been removed.
