Keegan elected SU president in heated elections

Alan Keegan at the hustings for all prospective Students' Union candidates. Photo: Cian Ginty

Alan Keegan has been elected as DCU Students’ Union president with 45% of the vote in what was one of the most controversial SU elections DCU has ever seen.

The elections were more competitive than ever before. Nine candidates contested the three sabbatical positions of president, campaigns and information officer and education and welfare officer compared to just three candidates last year.

Much of the controversy throughout the three day long election surrounded the positions of campaigns and information and education and welfare.

With both races being too close to call, several candidates requested complete recounts of the votes, causing the electoral committee, led by Eoin O’Sullivan, to endure over 20 hours of counting.

With the first night of counting ending at 8am on Thursday morning, Melanie Farrell was deemed elected as campaigns and information officer with 964 votes to Andrew Harford’s 893. Harford promptly called a recount that took place the following evening.

In an even tighter race, John Murphy was announced to have taken the education and welfare contest by just three votes over rival Mark Egan.

However, it was the third-place candidate Leanne Heneghan who was first to request a recount.

Heneghan was trailing Egan by just 40 votes when she was eliminated after the first count.

The real drama surrounding this year’s SU elections surfaced on the second night of counting. Melanie Farrell was deemed elected as campaigns and information officer for the second time in as many nights.

However, the election was put into disarray when the figures announced by O’Sullivan were somewhat different than those declared the previous night.

For the first time ever in a DCUSU election, SU president Niall McClave received a request from a candidate - Andrew Harford - that a new electoral committee be put in place.

Much confusion then surrounded the count centre with some onlookers suggesting a vote of no confidence in O’Sullivan’s team had been exercised by Harford.

Speaking to the College View afterwards, Harford was quick to quell suggestions that his request for a new electoral team was a vote of no confidence in the original committee.

“I just wanted a fresh set of eyes on things. The electoral committee had very little sleep the night before and were counting for hours,” he said.

“Since it was such an important matter, I thought it would be no harm to ask someone else to have a go,” he added.

After the original electoral committee concluded the count of the education and welfare position, John Murphy was again announced the winner by O’Sullivan with a margin of three votes.

However, Egan’s campaign team then requested a recount by the new electoral committee.

Outgoing SU president Niall McClave then announced that he would take over the role of returning officer and proceeded to install a new team of counters.

McClave’s team of seven included the outgoing sabbatical officers Dave McGovern and Susan Hurley as well as clubs and societies’ officer Eimear Fitzmaurice.

However, just minutes into the second recount of the campaigns and information post, McClave announced that the election was to be moved to the residence of president-elect Alan Keegan on the Ballymun Road after DCU security, who had to close the Hub, requested that they leave the premises.

After hours of voting, both Melanie Farrell and John Murphy were deemed elected for the third time on Friday morning.

Murphy’s margin of victory was six votes, in comparison to the previous margin of three votes after the second recount.

Farrell prevailed over Harford by a margin of 76 votes, five greater than the previous night.

The presidential race was dominated by only one candidate, with Alan Keegan receiving 871 first preference votes in comparison to the 611 and 447 votes received by Cillian Byrne and Conor Mortimer respectively.

Following the transfer of Mortimer’s 447 votes, Alan Keegan was declared president, receiving a total vote of 1,032 to Byrne’s 843.

Speaking to the College View about his victory Keegan spoke about how excited he is to take over the position of DCUSU president.

Keegan said: “I can’t wait. It felt absolutely fantastic to win and I couldn’t have done it without my campaign team.

“Our hard work paid off and it was definitely worth it.”

He added, “I was really nervous for the second count as Cillian ran a great campaign. Now I’m really looking forward to next year as we have a great team and I think we can make lots of positive changes and really put the buzz back around campus.”

The new SU team will take office on June 15.