Election Day On The Ground

Chatter from the masses as Maynooth rocks the vote

Election fever is sweeping Maynooth, and owing to a busy schedule of lectures, The Observer can only bask in it for a short time. The Arts Block and surrounding areas are buzzing as the day that decides the 2010/11 NUIMSU exec dawns.

Three of the five candidates for the big job are out in force, the red hot favourite Aengus Ó Maoláin, dark horse Gavin Brady, and Michelle O’Leary, apparently in a last-ditch attempt to salvage a decent showing with a burst in the final lap. Whether that can actually work remains to be seen.

Present too on North Campus are the “Yes to USI” campaigners, as today’s voting also includes a two-part referendum on whether the college should rejoin USI. The “YES” campaign have been out in force all week to their credit, and rather than telling students which way to vote, encouraged them all to do their research and whether yes or no, just vote. The “NO” campaign kicked off only properly this morning as polling opened. Rather than trying to transparently explain the reasons the USI is bad for Maynooth, they have opted for a sensationalist smear campaign. The Observer hadn’t been aware until today that behind their “national student representation” facade, lurks a group of people who are apparently a bunch of money grabbing abortion lovers. We’re still looking for the leaflet that tells us that they sell drugs to kids, or tie damsels in distress to traintracks, while twiddling their moustaches and cackling.

In all seriousness, the “NO” campaign has been run appallingly. We’re sure that there is a valid argument against USI, but when your response to a well run “yes” campaign is to accuse them of all sorts of things in ALL BOLD AND CAPS LOCK, SO YOU KNOW WE’RE TELLING THE TRUTH, your argument loses its credibility. Furthermore, whereas the “YES” campaigners have been ever-present to answer all questions, The Observer has only seen one “NO” campaigner. And that was only because I arrived at the Common Room to get crisps at 8:35AM, and saw a man in, no joke, all black and a baseball cap obscuring his face, skulking in between tables and putting down the aforementioned fliers. One wonders, on reflection, whether The Observer has missed a joke, and it’s just the “YES” side doing a parody of the “NO” side.

The Observer cast its vote in the early afternoon and decided to hang around the arts block to chat to the voters and see what way things are going. In terms of Presidential voting, a surprisingly large number of people that we talked to are voting Jason Whelan and Gavin Brady as 1st or 2nd preference. We still expect Aengus will win, but it appears that the damage done by Jason’s outings on boards.ie was not as widespread as once thought, and dark horse Gavin may mount a serious challenge.

People are also talking a lot about the VP Welfare position and at time of print, many students believed it to be a dead heat between Lydia Farrell, Liz Murray, and Mary Quinn. Rumours were also abound in the Arts Block that afternoon that a member of Liz Murray’s campaign team breached the exclusion one and was seen near the polling booth in the morning dressed in one of Liz’ t-shirts, which is against the rules of the election. The returning officers and other present had to repeatedly request that he vacate the premesis or remove the garment in question, and though he resisted at first, did eventually leave. Whether that actually influences the outcome is highly speculative, but should Liz win, it gives opposing camps fair reason to complain.

For finance officer, people were talking up Declan Meenagh quite a bit. The feeling on campus is that he’s the best man for the job and is generally a really nice guy, so expect him to do well. For Ents, it seems to be, as predicted, Pat Byrne who has stolen the hearts of the electorate was his CRAICademic manifesto. The last position we’ve heard any chatter about is the odd word that people are voting Naoise for Cultural Officer.

So that was the word on the ground this afternoon at election central. We hope that, like us at The Observer, you voted today. We intend to be back as results break from the election. If you have anything you’d like us to publish or cover, or have news from yesterday’s events, please don’t hesitate to email us at:

studentobserverireland@gmail.com
Until then,
-Pangloss