A formal campaign to vote in favour of re-opening the nominations (RON) for the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TDCSU) Presidential election race has been organised.
Posters and pamphlets were circulated around campus as early as Wednesday, just two days into the campaign period. They were visible around the Arts Block, the BLU Library complex, and the Hamilton Building, amongst other locations.
An instagram account for the campaign was created on Wednesday, and has since gained over 180 followers. This places their follower count marginally lower than candidates Giovanni Li and Seán Thim O’Leary. Patrick Keegan’s campaign account has amassed around 40 more followers than his two competitors.
In a statement to Trinity News, leaders of the RON campaign wrote that they “have a number of issues with the platforms and experience of the current candidates […] but do not wish to make the RON campaign a personal attack on any individual candidate”.
They took issue with “the strong party affiliations” that O’Leary and Keegan maintain — with the two candidates being the Chairperson of Trinity Social Democrats and the Secretary of Trinity Ógra Shinn Féin, respectively.
“Having a president who is primarily known for political activism along a party line necessarily alienates some union members”, they wrote.
They noted that they are not in favour of an apolitical union, stating that “standing on other political issues such as housing and BDS unite people across numerous parties”.
The organisers further critiqued “the spokesperson capacities of the candidates”, saying that their performances at husting events have shown their lack of “grasp of student sentiment and a strong public speaking ability”.
In their statement, they proceeded to take specific issues with candidates. Discussing Li, they wrote that his promise to implement a trans mentorship program within the Disability Service “is inefficient and conflates being trans with being disabled which […] ultimately echoes a far right narrative”.
On O’Leary, they disavowed his manifesto which “over-focuses” on lobbying as a means for change in place of direct action, and the “complete non-mention of Palestine” in his manifesto. They then criticised Keegan for his overreliance on direct action, and “vague references to minority issues”.
Voting for the next TCDSU sabbatical officers is open to students from February 25-27, with the results of the election being announced on Friday, February 28. A successful RON campaign is extremely rare, however notably did come to fruition in 2022 in the race for the University Times editor.
