MSU: Democracy No More?
The ramifications of last year’s MSU referendum are just now coming into worrying effect: read on for a summary of last year’s glossed-over controversy, and this year’s impending issues.
The rallying ‘yes, yes’ cry of the Irish government in the lead up to last Friday’s family and care referendum is eerily similar to that of the MSU executive this time last year in the run up to the constitutional referendum that accompanied the standard 2023 MSU election. The one major difference: the yes vote for the proposed change to the MSU constitution was passed while that of the Irish government wasn’t. This success is due to the efforts of the MSU executive members encouraging every student they encountered to blindly vote yes (“vote yes for the constitution or ur ugly”, anyone?), without defining what the yes vote entailed. The only information circling at the time was a leaflet defining what the constitution was, not what people were voting to vote yes to change.
The consequences of the MSU ‘vote yes’ campaign were clearly outlined in an extremely thorough article published on the Silver Hand website on the 8th of March 2023.
(https://silverhandjournal.com/articles/g9z9nrczg0cmkdrvj6ncfbgzhj8gir)
Despite that fact that our writer received no clarification about the proposed changes to the constitution from any MSU executive member, they slogged through the old and proposed constitution documents to try and ensure MU students made informed decisions on polling day in 2023. Their findings included the following:
The powers and competencies of the Electoral Commission are to be expanded.
Executive PTO roles to become amendable without referendum. This means that the roles can be altered without your input.
The Articles of the Constitution may be amended by the Student Senate for a one-year period after the certification of the proposed Constitution. Asked for clarification from President Niall Daly as to whether this means the constitution can be amended without a student vote.
Provisions are to be made for the filling of vacant seats in the Executive, Student Senate, and Academic Assembly through bye-elections in the first semester and through nomination of an ordinary Union member by the President and appointment by the Student Senate in the second semester. This means effectively that the President can appoint members at their own discretion if a role remains unfilled in the second semester.
Some minor alterations, title changes, policy restructuring, etc.
The effects of the successful yes vote and the incorporation of the proposed changes to the constitution are only rearing their heads in this 2024 campaign season. They range from the seemingly benign (the role of VP for education being altered to VP of academic affairs) to concerning (gaining a MSU executive position without being voted in). An anonymous email received by the PubLit Society on 9th of March 2024 prompted me to do some digging. Below are screenshots of pdfs on the MSU website (https://www.msu.ie/election/notices/) published on 4th of March 2024 and show the consequences of the yes vote in our vivid purple and orange colours of democracy.
The changes that were voted in are broad and all encompassing (see those highlighted in this article in particular) and make for one question: has democracy within the MSU elections been weakened?
The screenshot above from (https://www.msu.ie/election/executive/) outlines the steps required to run for a MSU executive position. The steps beyond filling out a nomination form now seem to be null and void for positions that are uncontested. Despite this section of the candidate handbook for 2024 detailing the re-open nominations option:
It seems that there is justified confusion surrounding the nomination process and how far the powers of the electoral commission and executive reach. What sort of decisions can they make without student input? I certainly have questions and if you do too, reach put to this email address listed on the MSU website returning.officers@msu.ie
