Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

Cian was on Morning Ireland yesterday(requires Real player) talking about the petition.

The No to Thursday Petition is still going and just past 700 signatures thanks to everyone who signed.

From Harry McGree. Bertie on Thursday Elections.
BA: I probably have. It’s of no importance whatsoever. My point about the Friday was that with the cleaning of he register, now people are meant to be registered where they are living. That includes students as well. If they are living in Dublin, they should be registered in [...]

I try to keep my eye on the local papers. But missed them the last few weeks. Anyway. According to the Western People Ogra Fianna Fail also support Saturday voting. Good for them. Our petition currently has at time of writing 632 signatures. Please add your name to it if you agree. (Hat [...]

Fine Gael have produced an Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2007. Weekend voting to be guaranteed by FG Bill - Kenny
1. The Electoral Act 1992 is amended in section 96 by deleting (1)(a) and inserting the following:
“(1) (a) shall be taken on such Friday, Saturday or Sunday as shall be appointed by the Minister by [...]

I sent the following Email to Barry Andrews. After he released a press release today. Barry Andrews TD urges young people to Rock The Vote today
Dear Mr Andrews
I note on the Fianna Fail site that you are urging the youth of Ireland to rock the vote i.e getting more young people to vote. This is [...]

I’ve had enough. What is with all of these left wing zealots ranting on about how Thursday voting is such a shockingly awful idea. I mean, really, didn’t they listen to the Taoiseach? Here is what the wise Northsider said:
I listened to the argument the last time. And it didn’t work. Friday did not work. [...]

I decided to merge these two since they are related. First a quick update on the weekend vote petition. It is just over a week since we kicked off the petition for a weekend vote this General Election. We have gone over the arguments and there is healthy debate over the rights and wrongs of [...]

Report from the Irish Independent
IRELAND is one of the wealthiest nations in the world but 15pc of our children are experiencing “food poverty” due to parents being too busy to provide proper meals.A new report has found that children from middle-class families are suffering food poverty, while 16pc of all Irish children under the [...]

Their web poll is the question “Do you think the general election should be held on a Friday?” can be voted on here. Closes at 10p.m.

The petition is still going and going quiet well. Here are some of the comments left.
The government constantly comment on the lack of 18 to 25 year olds voting, and then they go and organise an election that actively discourages them from voting. It’s a disgrace.
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The most regular criticism of the petition so far (here and elsewhere) and I just want to clarify a few points about why this is not quite justified criticism.

In todays Irish Times (subs req’d), Bertie gives his reasons for a Thursday poll;
“I listened to the argument the last time. And it didn’t work. Friday did not work. I was all over the city on the Friday. What people do now is get out of the city on a Friday afternoon. [...]

This morning (Friday) the Newstalk Breakfast Show are chatting to me about the petition. Tune in if you get a chance, time is supposed to be just after 7:30.

Update: We gotta button - thanks Frank!!

As we know at this stage, the Taoiseach doesn’t really like Friday for voting. That is why we started the petition to get a weekend election going. However it seems that Saturday’s are quite popular with the government before now:

Click here to sign the petition!!
Simon and I feel quite strongly about the Thursday voting idea, so strongly we have set out a petition demanding weekend voting for the 2007 General Election. Voting on Thursday is likely to disenfranchise commuters and students, a weekend poll will give the maximum number of citizens the chance to [...]