Dermot Lohan's future as president of the Union of Students in Ireland hung in the balance last night as votes were being counted in the UCC referendum on reaffiliation to the national students union.

Even Lohan's supporters admit that his position will become very uncomfortable if USI loses the Cork referendum, which could see UCC return to the union after more than 15 years.

While moves by Lohan's opponents to compile a petition of students'-union presidents calling on him to resign failed in the run-up to the referendum, a campaign to impeach him is likely to begin should USI fail to woo back the student unions in UCC and UCD. Students in UCD go to the polls next week.

Lohan would have to go before a special council of USI if a successful call were made for such a meeting. A two-thirds majority of delegates could unseat him. However, Lohan would have the right to appeal to a special congress, which would have to vote by a two-thirds majority for his impeachment.

While any such attempt is unlikely to succeed if UCD and UCC reaffiliate, Lohan would face a close call should neither union reaffiliate. The president of NUI Galway's student union, who is actually a supporter of Lohan, was forced by his union executive last month to call for a special council of USI to discuss Lohan's presidency. Cormac McCarthy says he is happy Lohan is "carrying out the agenda he campaigned upon. We need to get on with representing students and stop the petty squabbling".

His vice-presidents, Phelim O'Neill and Norma Lenihan (see story below left), have written a letter to students'-union officers in other colleges lamenting the lack of "real leadership" in USI.

DIT's union president, Ross O'Daly, has written to Lohan to say he no longer has any confidence in his presidency of USI. O'Daly says the letter asks Lohan "to more or less resign". He describes Lohan's presidency as "disastrous".

However, the DIT president called for a "Yes" vote in the Cork referendum, saying there was "no truth to the rumour that DIT don't want Cork back in USI".

A statement released by eight members of UCC's union executive just a week before yesterday's referendum betrayed deep divisions on the executive over the referendum campaign.

The executive members said a press release from their union president, Aidan McCarthy, "may have given the erroneous impression that the students'-union executive are supporting the Yes side in the referendum and are urging the students of UCC to vote in that way. Nothing could be further from the truth.

"It has been decided unanimously that the students'-union executive committee will have no official stance or position on the referendum and will remain neutral."

Lohan said the Cork and Dublin referendums were "a once-off opportunity to make USI a national union in the truest sense of the word". He said the organisation had become more transparent financially since he took office, and said the union had run a number of successful awareness-raising campaigns on fees and student welfare issues. Responding to controversy over the downgrading of a number of officer positions and his financial restructuring of the organisation, Lohan said funds had been made available through that process for the appointment of press, research, financial management, and development staff. "USI has suffered due to large number of students in the Republic who are outside membership. This has played into the hands of politicians, the Department of Education and unrepresentative elements in USI who are more comfortable with an organisation that is restricted in its ability to genuinely represent students."

Meanwhile, three students' unions have contacted Education and Living to dissociate themselves from a press release sent to The Irish Times which suggested that officers in eight colleges were considering supporting disaffiliation from USI. Officers from NUI Galway, the University of Ulster and the National College of Ireland contacted this newspaper to say they had not given permission to have their names attached to such a statement. The University of Ulster and NUI Galway are both set to have referendums on their futures as members of USI this year.