MISU Elections 2013

NotThePope · 28-03-2013 2:38pm #1

Hello all,

First time poster here but I thought someone on here might have some idea as to what's going on with the SU elections, which I took a keen interest in this year. One of my friends was at the class rep meeting last night and they said that the SU elections for president and vice could be recalled due to some sort of error. What's going on, did anybody hear? The SU is on here, maybe they'll respond.

dambarude · 28-03-2013 4:28pm

NotThePope wrote: »

Hello all,

First time poster here but I thought someone on here might have some idea as to what's going on with the SU elections, which I took a keen interest in this year. One of my friends was at the class rep meeting last night and they said that the SU elections for president and vice could be recalled due to some sort of error. What's going on, did anybody hear? The SU is on here, maybe they'll respond.

That doesn't sound good. It would need to be a very big mistake to actually the outcome of the election though, because it seems both the president and VP were elected on the first count with a fairly comfortable margin.

Nice to see a new poster! There are lots lurking on the forum, so it's great to see more people signing up.

dambarude · 28-03-2013 7:01pm

Information on what NotThePope brought up is on the MISU website now: http://misu.ie/index.php/maryilive/news/2266-emergency-general-meeting-april-9th

It sounds very messy.

Icarus Wings · 29-03-2013 1:41pm

...elected candidates manifestos and that they were possibly plagiarised as well as technical breaches in relation to the submission and processing of the nomination forms of the elected candidates.

Seems quite bizarre to say the least.

"Plagiarised" manifestos and "technical" errors in handling nomination forms - hard to know what exactly is happening, aside from red faces on both sides.

...and now, legal advice...

Cailin CoisFarraige · 30-03-2013 12:52pm

The pair who were elected as President and Vice president allegedly forged signatures on their nomination forms. They also allegedly plagiarised their manifesto from an American student election.

The reason it's so serious is that these are paid positions for a full year, it is essentially like lying at a job interview or application. There is no precedence for what has happened and thus solicitors are involved.

NotThePope · 30-03-2013 4:23pm

I presumed they plagiarised manifestos from previous candidates, not American elections. Although, the manifestoes aren't wildly different from year to year anyway, in fairness.

Does this mean we will have another election for Pres & VP by the end of the year? They'd want to get on with that, wouldn't they? Or is it a case of whoever came second is deemed elected?

Will the two who were elected already be allowed run again?

Cailin CoisFarraige · 30-03-2013 10:08pm

Just to clarify, what I said above was an explanation of the statement released by MISU since the language used was a little unclear to some. This is what the candidates have been accused of, not necessarily what they have done

dambarude · 30-03-2013 10:24pm

A reminder to posters that allegations are not necessarily fact, and that speculation can be libellous. I'd prefer if you only commented on general proceedings rather than on unproven specifics. Thank you

Ciderswigger · 30-03-2013 10:54pm

So does anyone know what happens now?

dambarude · 30-03-2013 11:04pm

According to the MISU minutes the elected candidates can keep their position but risk being thrown out if anybody challenges their appointment. It seems they were given the option to resign, and run again, but they did not respond and thus it was presumed they wanted to take the risk. That's my reading of it anyway but I'm open to correction.

I realise that the MISU Office are probably restrained in what they can say currently. Clarification at some point would be great though.

Poxyshamrock · 10-04-2013 9:34am

An EGM was held last night and this is a snippet of the unnaproved minutes from it.

On the 8th of April the President Elect and Vice-
President Elect decided to step aside.
As such, a by-election will be held.
The Executive met and the date of Wednesday
24th April has been set for the by-election. All
students will be allowed to run in this election.

NotThePope · 10-04-2013 10:05am

I see MISU posted a story there about the by-election and noms being open now. It's all a bit of a shambles really.

How is it that the two who originally won can run again? I don't think it's right that they can considering they allegedly cheated before. If people elect them, it will be a poor reflection of the union, IMO.

Are the staff aware this is going on? Surely, a re-election of the same people will be bad for college-SU relations? The SU's rep has already been damaged anyway, this will make it worse. Just my thoughts. The whole thing has just annoyed me.

NotThePope · 12-04-2013 5:23pm

Just read the minutes from the EGM there, sounds like it wad an interesting, although short, debate.

I don't like the lack of clarity around the plagiarism issue. The manifestos that were plagiarized led to the discovery that the nomination forms were plagiarized. Does that mean the entire election package from the Prez elect & Vice elect were in breach of the rules? I know it's only fair they be given a fair run at the elections again as they stepped aside (eventually) but how bad was this plagiarism? I mean, was the whole manifesto copied or just a little? How will we know if the manifesto is copied again?

Will many people even bother to vote I wonder considering how late on it is?

Ciderswigger · 13-04-2013 7:21am

Anyone know who set up the Mary I By-Election Reasons Facebook page? They have the manifesto from 2011 and highlighted all the similarities between it and the 2013 manifesto.

NotThePope · 13-04-2013 4:10pm

Ciderswigger wrote: »

Anyone know who set up the Mary I By-Election Reasons Facebook page? They have the manifesto from 2011 and highlighted all the similarities between it and the 2013 manifesto.

Just checked it out here. That answers my previous questions really as to where they copied the manifestos from. 2011 would have been mairead & noel wouldn't it?

They really did just copy and paste, tweaking bits here and there. It's not remotely subtle. The logical question now is who noticed the plagiarism (or PLAGERISM as it says on the fbook page :rolleyes: )

I wonder who did set it up? Unlikely that it was someone from the prez & vice prez elect camp did or if they did, I don't really see what their aim was? Presume it was someone from the opposition, although how did they see the evidence?

I'm glad it's out there because the info coming from SU was v vague... presuming this wasn't the SU?!

Progshark · 13-04-2013 4:53pm

The Disciplinary Committee did not sit to investigate the issues and thus there are no formal findings to present.

Taken from the minutes of the EGM.

It sounds like would be inappropriate for them to publish information that they haven't investigated fully. Whoever set up that page must have done some digging somewhere. Presumably the manifestos can be found online?

NotThePope · 15-04-2013 6:18pm

Progshark wrote: »

Taken from the minutes of the EGM.

It sounds like would be inappropriate for them to publish information that they haven't investigated fully. Whoever set up that page must have done some digging somewhere. Presumably the manifestos can be found online?

Turns out they didn't have to do much digging after all, I did one quick search on the MISU website there and found mairead and noel's manifestos here and here.

The Fbook page doesn't appear to be garnering that many likes anyway. Most of the comments appear to be from the one camp giving out about the page. Whether the page should have been set up is one thing but it does highlight (no pun intended) the fact that the manifestos were copied. I wonder what mairead & noel think of it all, or do they know? I wonder do they check here?

MISU Office · 19-04-2013 9:33am

Nominations have closed. Election to take place next Wednesday 24th April. The list of candidates and their manifestos can be found here

NotThePope · 19-04-2013 1:41pm

MISU Office wrote: »

Nominations have closed. Election to take place next Wednesday 24th April. The list of candidates and their manifestos can be found here

I presume all nomination forms and manifestos have been checked?

Certainly going to be an interesting election. Hustings will be fun... I wonder how many "plants" there will be? Could also be quite a number of tricky questions asked of previous candidates!

I think it's much better that this isn't a two horse race anyway. It's going to be much tighter I'd imagine.

I've also heard a rumour that one pair in particular have something "special" planned. Will have to wait and see.

Double decker · 20-04-2013 2:02pm

i can't really fathom voting for the previous candidates now after that carry on. don't even have the decency to step down from elections .

manifesto wrote:

Please note that running again is just a formality.

the arrogance and avarice is truly amazing.

NotThePope · 22-04-2013 9:24am

Having now read the manifestos, the one problem I have, apart from the fact that nothing new is being put forward by some candidates, is that candidates are suggesting changes but not saying how they will get these done.

There's no point in saying that you'll try and get the Gaeltacht placement shortened and then not say how. Equally, it's a waste of time saying you'll get the Dip included in the BEd and BA. Both are something that are way outside of the control of anybody in the SU as they're a Dept of Education thing, are they not?

The problem is people voting for unrealistic goals. I just hope people see through the falsities that are being put out there.

NotThePope · 26-04-2013 9:59am

Well that was all a very close affair. I'm glad that Elaine and Johanna got elected. They are dead on and seem to have their heads screwed on. SU seems like it will be in safe hands for 13/14... much safer than the two that were previously elected anyway.

dambarude · 26-04-2013 2:48pm

There was quite a turn around during the different counts... I'm sure that some are very disappointed, but at least it was an unambiguous campaign this time round (I'm presuming).

alwayswright · 26-04-2013 9:16pm

NotThePope wrote: »

SU seems like it will be in safe hands for 13/14... much safer than the two that were previously elected anyway.

Can't help but notice a biased opinion here. Personally I feel the SU would have been in perfect hands with the previously elected candidates, one of which has been hugely involved in the student union since first year.
One mistake doesn't define who you are.

NotThePope · 28-04-2013 3:20pm

It is biased in the sense that I did not want them to win second time around. They did not take the election seriously. They cheated both the manifestos and nomination forms. What would they do in office in much more serious situations with college management etc? It would have been hard to take them serious.

It's a tough one for SUs in general really. Some people go for it cos they want the title while some do it to try and actually change things and help the student body.I think the previous elected reps were in the former category.

I've also been told of some pretty rude behavior from candidates and their teams during the elections against other candidates which has tainted my view of them.

MISU Elections 2013

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