Fearghal Lynch was elected as President of DCU’s student’s union (SU) for the academic year of 2020/2021 with 2,288 votes on the third count.
In his winning speech, Lynch congratulated the three other candidates who went up against him: Evan Faul, Katie Fay and Olivia Forde.
“I’m delighted. I can’t believe the amount of people who went out and voted for me – it’s a great feeling,” Lynch told The College View.
In total, 4,919 people voted in the presidential race. Olivia Forde and re-open nominations were eliminated in the first count with 725 and 53 votes respectively.
Evan Faul was subsequently eliminated in the second count with 1,257 votes. Katie Fay came second with 1,894 votes in the third and final count.
Chloe McMorrow was another winner on the night. Running unopposed for Vice President (VP) for Education and Placement, she got 3,138 votes out of a total of 3,345.
“[I’m] really happy to have gotten it, really looking forward to the year ahead and working with everyone,” she said.
Lucien Waugh-Daly secured a narrow victory against Cormac Flynn in the race for VP for Academic Affairs, with Waugh-Daly receiving 1,744 votes on the second count compared to Flynn’s 1,646 votes.
“I’m thrilled to start some exciting projects and also to have a really positive, collaborative relationship with The College View. Student media is so important – I think the SU is finally going to be properly transparent with The College View,” he said.
Another head-to-head race was for the VP for Engagement and Development, where Dylan Mangan came out on top. Mangan got 1,716 votes compared to Dorian’s 1,511 votes.
“This [DCU] is my home – this is the place that I love out of anywhere in the world the most, and to just know I can give back to it in some way after it’s given so much to me is insane,” Mangan said.
Finally, the last full-time position up for grabs was VP for Welfare and Equality, which was a three-way race between Cian McBride, Dean O’Reilly and Kate Stafford. O’Reilly won on the second count with 2,268 votes compared to McBride’s 1,814 votes, while Stafford was eliminated on the first count with 966 votes.
“There hasn’t been someone from the LGBT society who has run for this position who has won in I don’t know how many years… I can’t wait for the next year to come around,” he told The College View.
Only one part-time officer race had more than two candidates running – Business Faculty Rep. Kate Goodman was elected over Charlie Kinsella with 471 votes.
Other part-time candidates elected were: Isabel Aust as Postgrad Officer, Caitlin Grant as Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty Rep, Ellen Quinn as Education Faculty Rep, Edy Nastase as Engineering & Computing Faculty Rep and Cian Hade as Irish Language Officer.
In addition, DCU students voted yes to remain in the Union of Students in Ireland with 1,652 votes in favour of the motion compared to 218 votes against. Students also voted in favour of adopting a new constitution for DCUSU, with 1,610 yes votes and 252 no votes.
Brendan Fernando Kelly Palenque
Image credit: Sonja Tutty