Graduates of Trinity’s class of 2019 will not be eligible to vote in the upcoming Seanad elections for the three University of Dublin seats.
A Seanad election must be called no later than 90 days after the dissolution of the Dáil. The 32nd Dáil was dissolved last month ahead of a general election this Saturday, February 8th.
However, the register of electors for the Seanad will only be updated on June 1st, meaning anyone who registered after that date last year will not be eligible to vote in this election.
In an email statement to The University Times, Patricia Barry, the service desk lead in Trinity’s Academic Registry, said: “As the 2020 Register will not be published before the conduct of the next election to Seanad Eireann, the 2019 Register of Electors will be used for the conduct this election.”
Barry said that the closing date to make application for inclusion on the 2019 Register was February 26th, 2019.
In an email statement to The University Times, Niamh McCay, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union Education Officer, said the situation was “highly frustrating”.
“I contacted the Director of AR as soon as I found out that this was going to be an issue. When I contacted her, I spoke with her secretary who informed me that she was already in talks about rectifying this, which was then confirmed by an email from the Director.”
“It is highly frustrating to me that an election was called that an entire body of students cannot vote in”, McKay said. “Extending beyond the exclusion of our graduates in the Seanad elections, there are hundreds of students across the country who were registered last year who had to re register again in order to be placed on the supplementary register to vote in their constituency. That’s why we are so grateful for the several hundred students who registered at our drive a few weeks ago.“
“I believe this election was called in such an urgent matter to exclude a body of young voters. Disenfranchisement in any form, if we are to call it that, is unacceptable. This, of course, is just my opinion, but it is the duty of the government to ensure students are well informed about their eligibility to vote.”
“Students and young people are the future of Ireland: yet they are being pushed out by policies brought in by the government currently in place. They are as entitled to vote for their future as anyone else”, she added. “I hope that, for next year, visibility of the rules around the electoral register is increased and the government makes it a priority to ensure everyone who is eligible to vote is registered to vote.”
Trinity’s current Senators are Lynn Ruane, David Norris and Ivana Bacik. Ruane, formerly the president of TCDSU, was elected in 2016 after narrowly defeating incumbent Senator Sean Barrett.
In addition to the Seanad elections, students expressed dismay at the voting registration process when it became clear that a large number of people who had registered in the previous year had to register with the supplementary register would not be eligible to vote in the upcoming general election. The 2020/21 register will not come into effect until February 15th, one week after the election.
Around 2,000 students added their names to the supplementary register before the January 22nd deadline, after registration drives organised by the Union of Students in Ireland on college campuses around the country.
