Seán Thim O’Leary has been elected as the next president of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), with 29.13% of first-preference votes.
O’Leary overcame a first-preference vote of 38.12% on the third count after votes were redistributed from opponents Patrick Keegan and Giovanni Li.
Speaking after their win, O’Leary said they had “no actual words to describe” their feelings.
“Thanks to my amazing campaign team and the greatest deal of thanks must go to the best fucking campaign manager this fucking SU election has ever fucking seen,” they said referring to campaign manager Eoin Connolly.
Acknowledging the massive share of votes for RON, they said: “I do want to endeavour to be a president that can represent everyone; and I do want to just say that I will be a president for every single goddamn member of this union.”
“I need to congratulate them they’ve all run amazing campaigns and I also want to say for all the people that are disappointed today that every single goddamn person who ran in this election fucking put the work in and they should be proud of themselves to no fucking end.”
Keegan received 17.89%, while Li was eliminated with 14.87%.
Running a campaign based on making the union a service provider for students, O’Leary aims to run a “service based, grassroots, welfare-oriented students’ union”. With a focus on lobbying before direct action, O’Leary aims to focus on transportation and housing issues at a College and national level.
O’Leary will succeed incumbent Jenny Maguire, taking over the position in July.
