An overwhelming majority of voters, 69 per cent, chose to impeach University College Dublin Studentsâ Dublin (UCDSU) President Katie Ascough from her role.
The result follows two days of voting which saw thousands of students participate. Todayâs vote saw one of the highest voter turnouts the union has seen in recent years.
Ascough came out defiant in her speech following the vote. âI fought the good fight. I have been open and honest. I have respected the lawâ, she said. While she offered something of an olive branch to her former UCDSU colleagues, she didnât apologise for her actions.
Universities, she said, cannot function without ârespect for those with different beliefsâ. Such rhetoric was a mainstay of the campaign, with Ascough pitching the vote as a battle for democracy and freedom of speech.
In her speech, after a long night of disappointment for her supporters, Ascough seemed to suggest her defeat tonight might be something of a catalyst for change in Irish universities. âI hope we can build an atmosphere of inclusion to those who might not fit the stereotypical image of an SU presidentâ, she said.
Amy Crean, a spokesperson for the impeachment campaign, offered the final words of a three-week long battle to remove Ascough from office.
âWe hope that this shows the importance of our democracyâ, she said.
Crean didnât mince her words. The three-week campaign has seen the pro-impeachment side face suggestions of bullying, malice and contempt for freedom of speech. Tonight, they were jubilant, pointing to the overwhelming vote as a vindication of their efforts.
âThis is absolutely a team effort and the amount of students has been phenomenal and that goes to every single one of you that got involved. Thank you so muchâ, she said.
Her anger, however, was palpable. âIt was absolutely not an easy decision to make in the face of allegations and lies. And I would like to reiterate that disrespectful tactics have no place in union politics and we hope that going forward engagement continues in a respectful mannerâ, she said.
The campaign has dominated headlines, social media and the national conversation for the last three weeks. Through the twists and turns of a campaign that seemed surreal at times, many have suggested tonightâs vote was something of an early indication of what a repeal referendum might look like in 2018.
After tonight, UCDSU will have to begin to rebuild itself. It remains to be seen how Ascoughâs former colleagues will respond or what the union does next.
The referendum required a simple majority to pass and the quorum for the vote to count was 2,455 votes, 10 per cent of students. Yesterday, around five per cent of students had voted, well above the usual two per cent turnout for one day of voting in a UCDSU election.
Ascough is the first-ever president of UCDSU to be impeached.
The largest box of the night saw 1,787 students voting in the arts building, with 14 spoiled votes. The pro-impeachment side saw 1,360 students vote in favour of impeachment, while 413 students voted against impeachment.
The votes from the Quinn building were the closest of the night, with 55 per cent voting in favour of impeaching Ascough. The science building, on the other hand, showed strong support for the impeachment campaign, with 72 per cent of students voting for her removal from office.
The first three buildings, which were announced around 10pm, saw 445 students vote. With one spoiled vote, the initial figures indicated a majority for the impeachment campaign, with 297 voting in favour.
Returning Officer Stephen Devine announced earlier this evening that results from buildings with lower voter turnout would be announced together, with results from buildings with a higher voter turnout and higher student numbers coming later in the night.
Tonight marks the culmination of two days of canvassing, with some suggesting this referendum has seen one of the highest turnouts in recent years in a UCDSU election.
After the impeachment of the president, the unionâs deputy president, Campaigns and Communications Officer Barry Murphy, will take on the role of governing the union.
UCDSUâs deputy president is chosen by the president on election. Murphy, who Ascough appointed on election, is currently acting as president. The unionâs executive council also has the power to elect a new president from the current sabbatical officers.
A by-election will take place to fill the open sabbatical officerâs position.
With over 1,200 signatures, the petition to trigger the referendum was submitted three weeks ago. It was started after Ascough removed abortion access information from the UCDSU freshersâ guide, Winging It. The move was seen by the pro-impeachment campaign as undermining the unionâs pro-choice mandate. The campaign also objected to the âŹ8,000 cost of reprinting.
The mandate, which was originally introduced in 2014, was reaffirmed last November after a referendum on the unionâs neutrality on the abortion issue was triggered by a petition led by Ascough and UCD Students for Fair Representation.
Since the initiation of the impeachment petition, Ascough has accused the campaign against her of bullying, saying the calls for her impeachment were illegitimate. She also targeted student media, claiming it has been biased against her. This led the fourth and final sabbatical officer, Welfare Officer Eoghan MacDomhnaill, to join the impeachment campaign on Wednesday.
The other sabbatical officers, Campaigns and Communications Officer Barry Murphy, Graduate Officer Niall Torris and Education Officer Robert Sweeney, penned highly charged open letters to students on Facebook on Monday night. Murphyâs statement claimed that Ascoughâs campaign âconsists of liesâ, while MacDomhnaill condemned Ascoughâs comments that called the other sabbatical officers âsexists and liarsâ.
Ascoughâs claims that she was advised by the UCDSU Board of Directors to follow legal advice on the removal of the abortion information was denied by the board. It said she had not shown them legal advice from the unionâs longstanding lawyer, Richard Hammond.
RĂłisĂn Power and Ciaran Molloy contributed reporting to this piece.
Kathleen McNamee, Dominic McGrath, RĂłisĂn Power and Ciaran Molloy were reporting from University College Dublin.