[The College View polled 150 students on Monday March 2 on both Glasnevin and St Patrick’s campuses. The poll has a margin of error of 8 per cent.]
Almost half of students don’t know who they are going to vote for in many of DCU’s students’ union (SU) elections days before voting began, according to an opinion poll carried out by The College View.
The race for DCUSU’s presidency has the least certainty, with 54 per cent of students unsure who to vote for. The poll, which surveyed 150 students across both Glasnevin and St Pats campuses on Monday 2nd March, shows that all four candidates have an even vote share.
Olivia Forde is the current leader, with 16 per cent of students surveyed choosing her, while Fearghal Lynch, Evan Faul and Katie Fay are all within 2 per cent of one another.
Chloe McMorrow, who is the only candidate running for Vice President (VP) for Education and Placement is set to easily win the position, despite 42 per cent of students surveyed saying they don’t know whether to vote for McMorrow or to reopen nominations.
The three-way contest for VP for Welfare and Equality is currently being led by Dean O’Reilly, who polling at 36.6 per cent and doing particularly well amongst students in the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. This is compared to Cian McBride’s 14.6 per cent and Kate Stafford’s six per cent. However, 42.6 per cent of students don’t know who they’re going to vote for.
The head-to-head race for VP for Academic Affairs is within the margin of error, but polling data suggests that Lucien Waugh-Daly is likely to draw support from the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences while Cormac Flynn will have the backing of students in the Business School. But 52 per cent of the 150 students polled don’t know who they’re going to vote for in this race.
Meanwhile, the race between Thomas Dorian and Dylan Mangan for VP for Engagement and Development is also too close to call, but 50 per cent of respondents do not know who to vote for in this contest.
In the three races to become VPs where more than one candidate is running, students from the Institute of Education (IOE), based in St Patrick’s campus, delivered the highest proportion of respondents who said they didn’t know who the candidates were or who they’d vote for. One respondent told The College View that “we’re not going to go for people we haven’t seen around here.”
In contrast, the majority of IOE students did have an opinion on the Presidential election, whereas most students polled from the faculties of Science & Health, Engineering & Computers and the Business School said they did not know who to vote for, 70 per cent ,78 per cent and 61 per cent respectively.
The elections will be run on loop between 7 am on Wednesday March 4 and 9 pm on Thursday March 5, and take place alongside reruns of referenda on a new constitution and a restructuring of SU sabbatical positions.
Shane Brennan & Tadgh McNally
Conor Breslin aided in the collection of data
Image credit: Jonathon Lynam