25 June 1998 Edition
Timing a smear
By Eoghan MacCormaic
Student politics are fascinating. The Students' Union in Queens University has established an electoral court to investigate allegations of electoral fraud in the recent elections of Sabbatical (or paid) positions on the Union and for a number of other elected offices.
Worth about £9 000 a year the position of Sabbatical Entertainments Officer is a position frequently associated with scams and slippery accounting in the minds of many students. Half a dozen other posts went uncontested, and the winners of these one horse races are also being examined. Doubts are being cast over the validity of all results.
I have a passing interest in student affairs. I once had an ambition to grow my hair long and drop-out of college. Instead my hair dropped out and my college days grew long. During my time there I learned a thing or two about elections and the fighting of them. And the wangling of them. And the ease with which any allegation of `fraud' becomes incontrovertible fact.
I remember one election, to a college society, where the polling station doors were locked as soon as the hopefuls were sure they had enough votes present. All protests were ignored. ``The constitution,'' they were told, ``says that the doors must be closed as soon as the election begins''. Rule 187. The oldest rule in the book. In another election, the main contender printed and distributed ballot papers to order. No id required, no register of electors, no independent overseer. Great fun.
Elections for college societies often saw quick thinking students reactivate dormant societies and clubs merely to access the pool of funds to which each is entitled. It's often viewed as a bit of harmless fun, university high-jinks and part of the maturing process. Take whatever you like out of that.
Union elections are a different kettle of fish. Registers of voters are kept, identity cards are required, ballots are pre-printed, numbered, franked, and the count is open to all. Complaints of vote-rigging occasionally surface in Universities in Dublin. Such elections are nominally non-party, and those who have party connections usually leave them to one side since the role of Union Officer is to represent all students. Yet many student leaders go on to become politicians - or also-rans - in national politics. `Political affiliation' is open to offers from the highest bidder.
While political affiliations are understated during the election, the losers, particularly the sore losers, make a scene of the connections a winner might have, after the last count. Cries of `Fix!' from the defeated battle with whoops of joy from the winners, as some student elections are better remembered for recounts than results.
It seems no wonder then, with election fever gripping the north, that a student election in Queens could be used in a smear against republicans. Accusations of personation, as yet unsubstantiated, are being made; the student elections were `a dry run' for the Assembly election. It all seems so predictable. Yet like so many other allegations of chicanery and trickery, it will pass. The trick is not so much proving the allegation, but timing it, and making the best of the smear while the public interest holds. Next month, like the results and the losers of Thursday's poll, the allegations will be old news. Vae victus. To the victor the spoils.
Student politics are fascinating. The Students' Union in Queens University has established an electoral court to investigate allegations of electoral fraud in the recent elections of Sabbatical (or paid) positions on the Union and for a number of other elected offices.
Worth about £9 000 a year the position of Sabbatical Entertainments Officer is a position frequently associated with scams and slippery accounting in the minds of many students. Half a dozen other posts went uncontested, and the winners of these one horse races are also being examined. Doubts are being cast over the validity of all results.
I have a passing interest in student affairs. I once had an ambition to grow my hair long and drop-out of college. Instead my hair dropped out and my college days grew long. During my time there I learned a thing or two about elections and the fighting of them. And the wangling of them. And the ease with which any allegation of `fraud' becomes incontrovertible fact.
I remember one election, to a college society, where the polling station doors were locked as soon as the hopefuls were sure they had enough votes present. All protests were ignored. ``The constitution,'' they were told, ``says that the doors must be closed as soon as the election begins''. Rule 187. The oldest rule in the book. In another election, the main contender printed and distributed ballot papers to order. No id required, no register of electors, no independent overseer. Great fun.
Elections for college societies often saw quick thinking students reactivate dormant societies and clubs merely to access the pool of funds to which each is entitled. It's often viewed as a bit of harmless fun, university high-jinks and part of the maturing process. Take whatever you like out of that.
Union elections are a different kettle of fish. Registers of voters are kept, identity cards are required, ballots are pre-printed, numbered, franked, and the count is open to all. Complaints of vote-rigging occasionally surface in Universities in Dublin. Such elections are nominally non-party, and those who have party connections usually leave them to one side since the role of Union Officer is to represent all students. Yet many student leaders go on to become politicians - or also-rans - in national politics. `Political affiliation' is open to offers from the highest bidder.
While political affiliations are understated during the election, the losers, particularly the sore losers, make a scene of the connections a winner might have, after the last count. Cries of `Fix!' from the defeated battle with whoops of joy from the winners, as some student elections are better remembered for recounts than results.
It seems no wonder then, with election fever gripping the north, that a student election in Queens could be used in a smear against republicans. Accusations of personation, as yet unsubstantiated, are being made; the student elections were `a dry run' for the Assembly election. It all seems so predictable. Yet like so many other allegations of chicanery and trickery, it will pass. The trick is not so much proving the allegation, but timing it, and making the best of the smear while the public interest holds. Next month, like the results and the losers of Thursday's poll, the allegations will be old news. Vae victus. To the victor the spoils.