Election Fever: Communications

Despite what some people tried to make out of it, the hoopla about David's nomination form turned out to be a non-issue, and hasn't had any effect on the campaign, despite some people claiming it would.

So, putting aside all that nonsense, the two candidates are;

• David Dolphin
• Aoife Ní Raghallaigh

DAVID DOLPHIN:

After a fairly late start, David is finally beginning to have a presence on campus. Some eye catching posters, may not be the most flattering angle for the candidate (pun intended). Online, David has one of the strangest websites (what is a GPG Key anyway? And what does it have to do with Communications office? More importantly, does it hold the answer to Lost??). If this is his campaign website, it needs to be made more user friendly. Just because his Skynet friends may understand it, doesn't mean everyone else will. Doing a good job of making speeches at lectures and getting his voice out there. Still needs more.

David appears to be running on the traditional "I'm a fresh voice for the students" mantra. His manifesto heads quite dangerously into Breenie bashing territory. Some ideas quite interesting however, and it seems like he'd be the best option for solving the website. How does he propose being able to print every article, while

"Keep An Focal filler-free; turn it into a professional quality paper we can be proud of"?

Not something he appears to have thought through.

His campaign seems to be relying on support from Emma, however, with all his campaigners seeming to come from her army. How will he survive when Emma pulls them back to her own campaign for one last assault on Thursday?

AOIFE NÍ RAGHALLAIGH

A fairly decent start from Aoife's campaign. Hitting as much of campus as she can with a good variety of posters (ah, the time-honoured "candidate on the front of a newspaper" motif). Has a fair amount of people on the ground, several t-shirted people seem to be wandering around campus with manifestos. And sweets. Yes, the buying votes with sweets race has begun early this year, folks.

Good campaign overall, Aoife is clearly relying on her journalistic experience here. Some of her T-shirts are slightly flawed however. "Vote Aoife" isn't the best idea when two candidates are running with the same name (albeit for different jobs). Which Aoife do you mean? And for what job? Getting your name out there is fine, as long as someone else doesn't share it.

Policy-wise, she seems solid enough, there's no real fire-starting policy (in neither a good or bad way). Pays more attention to An Focal than David, it's clear to see where their backgrounds both lie. Has also been visiting as many lectures, if not more, than David. Hasn't made any killer blows yet. Needs to keep up with David on his website/ Clubs and socities promises.

AND THE WINNER IS?

As with Education, this isn't one we're comfortable yet to wholesale call a victory for. However, at this point, it's looking as if Aoife is ahead. Still all to be played for in this one.