Public apathy on referenda set to rise, says Commission

VOTER turnout will continue to fall unless serious efforts are made to get the electorate interested in the issues at stake, the Referendum Commission has warned.

The Commission, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Finlay, criticised the Government’s lack of action on the problem, and said detailed research was essential to understand the causes.

In a report to the Environment Minister on last October’s Nice Treaty Referendum, the Commission said: “While the Government has experimented with weekend polling and longer opening hours for polling stations, it would seem that no effort was made to evaluate the effectiveness or impact of such moves.”

It continued: “We believe that unless measures are identified and action is taken, this decline will continue. The end result will be increased alienation from national and local government, an undermining of the democratic mandate and an ever-shrinking minority of citizens deciding on serious, far-reaching changes in our constitution and future governments.”

Turnout for the last poll was 49.47%, an increase on the previous vote on Nice (34.70%) and the abortion referendum of 2002 (42.89%), but the overall trend is downward and the Commission said that anything less than 50% is unsatisfactory.

Before the last referendum, the Commission ran two pilot projects aimed at increasing voting among students and low income groups, but the results showed the problem of voter apathy to be “deep-seated”.

A concerted campaign in Carlow Institute of Technology brought about a 15% increase in the number of students who voted, but a similar effort in two inner-city flat complexes in Dublin had no effect at all. A discussion session organised with local TDs and community groups failed to attract a single resident.

The Commission said it could not properly address the problem while it remained a temporary body, and called for its re-establishment as a permanent Electoral Commission.

It also called for a different approach to advertising and public awareness campaigns. The strategy of sending out over a million explanatory booklets in the post was not cost-effective, as a survey showed that only a third of recipients read them. Also, while independent TV and radio operators were generous in offering free airtime for information broadcasts, the response from RTE was disappointing, it said.