Irish abroad move closer to presidential vote

Up to 3m Irish passport holders living abroad could have the right to vote in the next presidential election if proposals approved yesterday by the Convention on the Constitution are accepted by Government and approved in a referendum.

Following a weekend convention in Malahide, in north Dublin, the 100-strong body of parliamentarians and citizens, voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing Irish citizens living outside the Republic and the North to cast their votes in any futures presidential elections.

A majority of 78% said those abroad should be given the vote while 73% agreed residents in the North should also be allowed to have their say.

If implemented, the extension of voting rights would be a logistical nightmare for the Government as all of the 3m-plus passport holders living in all four corners of the globe would have the right to vote.

Some 38% of the delegates said there should be no time limit on the length of time someone has lived outside of Ireland. While registering and casting votes may be easier in some countries such as the UK, America, and Europe, some sort of postal system would have to be established if potential voters in places such as Afghanistan, rural Africa and Asia and other remote parts of the world wished to exercise their right.

Tom Arnold, chair of the Constitutional Referendum, welcomed the outcome.

“This is an incredibly important issue that is hugely relevant to thousands of Irish citizens living all over the world and this was very clear throughout the entire process,” he said.

A report on the convention’s recommendations will be sent to Government “over the next couple of weeks”. It will then have four months to consider its response.

“Following this outcome, we will now be lodging a formal report with Government notifying them of the recommendation of the convention regarding presidential voting rights for Irish citizens who are resident abroad,” Mr Arnold said.

Completed online questionnaires from more than 2,500 Irish people living in 64 countries worldwide were also considered and 85% of those who answered believed in extending the vote.

The convention heard submissions from a number of people including the chairperson of the Votes for Irish Citizens Abroad group, Mary Hickman, who argued emigrants should also be afforded the right to have some sort of say in Dáil elections too.

“This issue of emigrant citizens voting in general elections isn’t going to go away. It is the avenue, the gateway, for a far better balanced relationship between the Irish nation and its diaspora,” she said.

Others argued voting rights should not be extended on the principal of “no representation without taxation”, meaning people who don’t pay their taxes in the Republic should not be afforded the right to vote here.

In her overview, Dr Iseult Honahan of UCD examined the case where a huge number of votes from abroad may threaten to “swamp” the domestic electorate or at least cause a swing in the election.

“To avoid the swamping scenario, one solution is to grant votes to citizens abroad, but to reduce their relative weight by, for example, counting the votes within one or more separate, or reserved, constituencies.

“Concern about the tipping power of external voters can be allayed if the external vote is generally not concentrated in a single constituency, but distributed across domestic constituencies.”

Over 100 countries worldwide allow their citizens to vote from abroad while a further 70 do not extend the franchise.

The Constitution Convention was set up by the Oireachtas in 2012 to examine and recommend changes to the Constitution. The next subject it will examine will be blasphemy laws in Ireland.

Last night, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams welcomed the outcome of this weekend’s meeting saying it had helped the Peace Process in the North.

“The Constitutional Convention has today taken a significant step forward in its recognition of the equal rights of all. By doing so, they have also made a constructive contribution to the peace process.”