Padraig Haughney elected SU President in Alarming Circumstances | Audrey Ellard Walsh
UCC students have voted, and their decision has been declared. As previewed in the last issue of the Express, the UCC Students’ Union executive for the 2013/14 year was elected in last week’s general election. Over the course of the 11th and 12th of March, 4045 students cast votes for the five sabbatical and seven part-time officers.As it stands, the SU Executive for the coming year is: President: Padraig “Podge” Haughney, Deputy President and Campaigns Officer: Annie Hoey, Communications and Commercial Officer: Owen Kirby, Welfare Officer: Dave Berry and Education Officer: Gavin Lynch-Frahill. The part-time positions are held by: Timmy Dineen (Entertainments), Mary Collins (Equality), Tadgh O Coiléain (Irish Officer), Cian Power (Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences Rep) Joe Kennedy (Business and Law Rep), David Magee (Science, Engineering and Food Science Rep), Aidan Coffey(Medicine and Health Rep). There is one position, that of Council Chair, remaining to be elected by Class Reps in the coming weeks.The count took place from 7pm in Devere Hall with results announced by SU President Eoghan Healy in the New Bar. The excitement of the evening was perhaps overshadowed however by the brisk evacuation of the Student Centre at 11.58 due to a fire alarm. This lead to the interruption of the Presidential count and the subsequent delay in that result. From approximately 11pm, security began preventing people from entering the venue, which had been crowded to capacity. An Express editor who was attempting to come to the count reported that by 11.30 the queue was down in front of the desk as more supporters arrived for the presidential candidates.Speaking on this unusually high turnout for election results, Eoghan Healy stated “It’s gotten bigger each year and obviously it’s a night of celebration so everyone’s friends will want to be present.”Those who had left the building to smoke, including a number of campaign team members and candidates, were also prevented from re-entering the building. It stands to reason that this policy was what lead to a number of students smoking in the bathrooms, the activity which was later identified to be the cause of the fire alarm.Initial rumours were that the alarm had been set off intentionally but from speaking to a firefighter on the night the Express can confirm that this was not the case, the officer stating that “whoever did it ruined it for everyone else”.It was certainly an unusual sight as students crowded the Honan Plaza after midnight to await the reopening of the building. When the doors reopened, only election tellers we readmitted to complete the count. At 1.30 am, after a long and eventful evening in the Students’ Centre, Padraig “Podge” Haughney was declared SU president.On whether or not the student(s) in question have been identified, Eoghan Healy stated “No, they haven’t been because obviously you can’t have cameras in the toilets so no, unfortunately they got away with it.”Speaking to Eoghan on the election results and the polling figures, I asked firstly of his opinion on the officers elected and of the current Executive’s plans before they hand over the reigns in July.“I think they’ll do fine, I think they all seem very enthusiastic about the job so I’d say they’ll be more than capable.”On voter turnout, I asked whether or not he believed that just over ¼ of the student population voting in the elections lead to a poor mandate:“As you said, it’s always generally around the 4000 mark. I think 4000 is an awful lot of people to be voting. I suppose some students maybe postgraduate students or final years who wont be in the college next year may not express interest but I think 4000 people voting is a very respectable figure and our turnout would be a lot higher than other colleges across the country. Even the fact that all positions are heavily contested is a very good thing I think because it’s very common in other colleges across the country that positions are uncontested every year and people can literally walk into the job so at least we’ve got a system here whereby people have to go out and fight for the position and prove that they can win it.”I asked Eoghan to reflect upon reasons cited by non-voters in the Express opinion polls prior to the elections, many of which were the fact that students claimed not to know who the Union were, or what they do.“I think you’re always going to get the argument from students that they don’t know what’s going on and that. Every single student receives an email into their inbox every week from myself about what we’re doing and stuff so I think if those students actually cared what was going on the information is there for them. At hustings one of the candidates raised the question that not every student knows who I am and I made the case back that not every student cares who the Students’ Union is as well. We’ll work as hard as possible for them regardless but I wouldn’t see it as a downfall that every student isn’t aware because you could waste so much time just trying to promote yourself without actually doing any work and I’d see that as pointless.”Finally, Eoghan stated that “I was very impressed that a number of second years ran for positions. I think it’s very difficult to get elected even after four years of college so that people with only two years of experience in UCC were brave enough to put themselves out there was very impressive. And I’m sure if those who lost are interested in getting involved they will easily be elected next year.”