Irish elections full of contradictions

IT is right that students and those working away from home should complain about disenfranchisement.

The Irish tradition of holding mid-week elections is perhaps the best way of ensuring an inadequate turnout at the polls.

Holding the general election on a Thursday while at the same time encouraging young people to vote is a glaring contradiction.

Many of our European neighbours hold elections on a Sunday — and the 85% turnout in the first round of the presidential elections in France is the only example needed to illustrate that weekend voting works.

However, it is not only the timing of the election that is out of sync with other countries.

On RTÉ television two weeks ago, I enviously watched coverage of hundreds of French citizens queuing outside their embassy in Dublin ready to cast their vote.

Unfortunately, the same privilege is not extended to Irish citizens living abroad.

Ireland is in a minority of democracies that does not allow its citizens living abroad to cast a vote at the respective embassy or by postal voting.

This is doubly enraging given that citizens of another sovereign state, the United Kingdom, are entitled to vote in the Irish general election since the Ninth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1984.

There may well be an argument for allowing Northern Ireland residents to vote in Irish elections, but I fail to see the rationale behind English, Scots and Welsh having the right to vote for Dáil Éireann candidates.

I can’t think of one other EU country that allows citizens of another state to vote in its parliamentary elections.

Permitting British citizens to vote for Dáil Eireann candidates while disenfranchising Irish citizens living abroad is yet another a contradiction of massive proportions.

Patrick O’Callaghan

Centre for European Law and Policy

Bremen

Germany.