Petition to impeach UCD Student Union head Katie Ascough has been rejected by the Returning Officer of the Union.
Ascough has faced widespread condemnation following the decision to remove information regarding abortion access from handbooks to be given out to freshers.
The magazine Winging It, contained price lists for abortion clinics outside of Ireland and details on how to buy abortion pills online.
Now, according to The University Observer, the petition calling for Ascough's impeachment has been rejected on the basis that it didn't have a section for student's signatures.
According to the publication, they were contacted by a member of the Student Union 'with concerns about the validity of the petition.' Article 6.5 of the SU constitution says:
“In the case of a referendum by petition, each petitioner must sign the referendum petition underneath, at the end of, or on a sheet attached to, an exact copy of the wording of the proposed referendum and provide their name, programme, stage and student number.
The petition had the following titles: name, programme, stage, student number, but did not include a section for signatures. Therefore, the petition was rejected.
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The petition had gathered 1620 names when it was handed to the Returning Officer on Monday, more names than the number of votes Ascough received in the election for UCDSU president.
With the required number of signatures, it was expected that an impeachment referendum would be happening in the next few weeks.
Katie Ascough recently spoke to College Times regarding her decision to remove the section regarding abortion access from the freshers handbook, citing legal concerns.
Since elected, I have carried out my duties as President in keeping with the UCDSU Constitution which clearly states I am responsible for the administration of the Union. In line with the legal advice obtained, and with agreement from the Board of Directors to follow that legal advice, I would have been acting imprudently to put the Union and individuals at risk by facilitating the distribution of this illegal information. Therefore I made the decision to redact the mentioned content.
