Gli irlandesi all’estero chiedono meno restrizioni per il voto per corrispondenza
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/1207/1485168-irish-abroad-call-for-less-restrictions-for-postal-votes/
di MotherDucker95
Gli irlandesi all’estero chiedono meno restrizioni per il voto per corrispondenza
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/1207/1485168-irish-abroad-call-for-less-restrictions-for-postal-votes/
di MotherDucker95
34 commenti
Only those resident in the country should get a vote. There should probably be some kind of solution for people who might be holiday or away on work on the day of the vote
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The current level of restriction is fair. At most I’d say someone who booked a holiday in advance of the date being announced could be given some leeway if the election fell during their holiday that they would lose money on for cancelling but that’s pretty much the extent of it.
If you regularly live outside of Ireland(for reasons other than Irish state interests) then you aren’t affected by the results of the election and should seek to vote where you live.
“Expat” bores telling us how wonderful it is where they are.
No representation without taxation
Voting without facing the consequences is utter madness
If you don’t live in Ireland, I don’t think it’s reasonable to still be allowed to vote.
I know people leave the country for various reasons, but not being here to live with the consequences of the vote you cast would be wrong.
But where do we draw the line?
Do we allow all citizens abroad to vote? There are six million people in Britain alone who are entitled to Irish citizenship as they have at least one Irish grandparent. Even if 5% of them voted, it would be massive. And that’s just the UK.
Do we allow citizens to vote for a certain length of time after emigrating? How do we manage to control this when we are seeing stories coming out that we can’t even keep a proper list of voters within the state, let alone those residing outside the state.
I live abroad by the way. I don’t think I should have the right to vote. Registered for the EU elections in another country in 2014, which involved me proving I had sent a notification to Ireland to de-register there. Did all of that. Over ten years later, and I’m still registered despite actively taking all the steps to take myself off the list. The register of electors in Ireland is a shit show at the moment. Shouldn’t be even considering changes until it’s tidied up.
Once things have been tidied up at home, there are two ways that could work if people did want to extend voting rights to those abroad.
Copy Sweden and give the right to all citizens with a PPS number. Citizens who never lived in Ireland would not have one.
Copy Poland and just make one “constituency” for people abroad. That way, no matter how many people vote abroad, they can still only elect a limited number of TDs etc. Not sure how it would work for referendums/the presidency though.
Either way, personally I am still against it regardless.
They can keep calling. If you have moved away for more than 1 year, you should lose the right to vote, with a possible exception for presidential elections. As a country we give out passports and citizenship like sweets, so there would be hundreds of thousands of people, maybe more, most of whom have never set foot here, eligible to vote in our elections. Extending the franchise like that for presidential elections would have to be accompanied by a rock solid mechanism enabling the people to remove a rogue president. It’s not inconceivable that MAGA or the Russians could target the presidency if franchise was extended to citizens abroad.
Not gonna get much sympathy I imagine.
But it was disappointing that the lads had the opportunity to pop down to the American embassy and vote if they wanted but we weren’t offered the same by our government despite there also being an Irish embassy in town.
I don’t see any negative to it.
When the abortion referendum happened I seem to remember articles that there were plane loads making their way home from Aus to vote.
So that just makes it classist. “If you have the money to come home you can vote. If not, sorry, fuck you.”
I think all citizens of the nation should be allowed to vote, wether they live here or not.
Once again. Restrict it to those that have been resident in the past 5 years.
They may not experience a new goverment abroad.. but they definitely felt the last one
One of them out of the country 12 years and expecting a say? Nope.
Another at the stage of permanent residency in Canada? Nope.
No votes for emigrants and trying to phrase this as a relaxation of the postal vote requirements isn’t going to cut it. I mean, even if you are ordinarily resident in Ireland and have a good reason a postal vote is only given for very good cause (med cert etc)
If you don’t pay tax in the country, you shouldn’t have a vote in the country.
Why should you get a say if you don’t live here?
Just because you live aboard doesn’t mean you aren’t affected by the results of the election.
30,000 Irish people returned home in the year to April 2023 according to the CSO. The policy decisions of the government absolutely effects them despite them not having a vote.
You can still have interests in Ireland while abroad, both financial and personal.
For centuries, many young Irish people have emigrated abroad for opportunity and many of them intend and do come home.
If someone was born, raised and lived in Ireland for 20-25 years before emigrating for 5-10 years with the intention of coming home for the remainder of their life, why should they lose their vote?
Those people are absolutely effected by the results of an election, policy decisions have impact far beyond the duration of the government.
Fuck no. We’ve millions more passports than people who live here, our government would be too stupid to be able to differentiate between people who lived here for years and have emigrated for whatever reason (who I’d like to see vote) and some yank who has never set foot here.
I live abroad and my mother still receives a polling card for me. I don’t know how much the government are even really keeping track to be honest.
We need mandatory voting in this Ireland
Pay tax on income generated outside of Ireland if you want a vote
I always laugh at people on here against foreign voting whilst also being the most anti-FF/FG possible. The people who were wronged by FF/FG **are** the ones who left.
Not a chance; you should only be able to vote here if you pay taxes or reside here.
Jog on, lads. If you aren’t going to be affected by the laws, the government would pass, no say for you.
Either way, the register needs massive tidying up. People who moved to other countries years ago still being on it need to be scrubbed off it, as well as duplicates.
Nope, just look at what’s happening in Romania. That said, people who are away should have the option to vote, either by post or early in person.
I think we could have a compromise. Something like this perhaps:
1. If you’re out of the country for up to 5 years (one election cycle max) you could retain a full remote vote by post or similar secure system.
2. After five years you would be considered no longer an Irish resident, so you would be transferred to an Irish Abroad register, which would allow to vote for an Irish Abroad panel in the Seanad, similar to a university senate panel – they would have an ability to bring a view to the senate, but in reality have no ability to block legislation. The Irish senate’s role is basically just discussing nuance.
It would mean they would not be voting in geographical constituencies, but just for a small number of senators to represent their point of view.
This panel would only be open to people who had registered to vote in Ireland while living here as a step down from the postal vote. Irish citizens abroad who had never lived and voted here before would not be able to register to partake in Irish elections. There are simply way too many people out there who can claim Irish citizenship who’ve fairly loose connections to the state.
I absolutely would not open the presidential election to the whole Irish global community, as has been suggested by quite a few. We’d end up with some bizarre outcomes if you’d a wave of votes from Irish American sources for example that would have little in common with what’s going on here.
Finally, I would also make it much easier to vote for Irish residents who are just abroad for a few months or who are not at home.
1. You should be able to register for a postal vote or to be able to cast a remote ballot in any Irish polling station, when it is posted to you if you cannot get to your polling station.
2. We should be facilitating people who are on holidays, away for work, out of country temporarily etc.
As an Irish person abroad, I don’t believe I should have the right to vote in Irish elections. I don’t live there, I don’t pay taxes there, I don’t use services there, and government policies don’t impact me day-to-day – there’s no justifiable reason for me to able to exercise the same power as someone who lives there.
I think there should be a diaspora constituency. It should be a two to five seat constituency based on the past five years of emigration.
It would be open to anyone who voted at least once while resident in Ireland.
As for the objections, I disagree with all of them. A fully disabled person with no employment in Ireland pays no income tax but they can vote. Rightfully so. Citizenship isn’t based on ability to pay.
Irish citizens abroad are affected by the Irish government. Passport fees. Irish diaspora in the UK have long lobbied for medium and long wave Irish stations. Irish agreements of retirement funds. Irish diaspora thinking of moving back might have thoughts on housing policy.
As the UK showed in the Brexit vote, a government can massively impact their citizens abroad.
During periods of heightened emigration – which many governments have used as a method of managing the economy – I think the diaspora should have a bigger voice. Hence using the past five years of emigration to size the constituency.
By making a specific constituency for diaspora it would result in candidates who would advocate for diaspora issues.
Note, this isn’t an original idea. The Italian Parliament does this. It’s a neat idea.
If you’re not paying taxes here then you shouldn’t get a vote. Simple as.
I’d find it to be most fair that if you are away from the country for a period of more than half the time between 1 election and another then you shouldn’t get a say. E.G General elections are every 5 years so being away from the country for 2.6 years would lose your entitlement to vote as you weren’t here when the current government was in power.
Bot fuclin late lads. You may as well stay over there!
This is not in the governments interest. The Irish abroad all left for similar reasons and that tends to link back to the current government. They don’t want the disgruntled diaspora abroad to vote in elections.
I lived abroad in the same country for years and thus could not vote anywhere. I was not allowed to vote in my country of residence or in Ireland. As somebody who lived abroad it was always on the cards that I might come home eventually. A lot of people who are abroad, it is because of political decisions made bt governments in Ireland, for example, the 2008 crash, the housing crisis.. we may not have been abroad otherwise. Also we still have family at home and care about their futures. Some people I knew were also sending money home to their families. So the connection with your home country is still very strong.
When I was living abroad most other nationalities would go to their embassy and vote.
If they are not going to let Irish citizens living abroad vote then at least let all people who are resident in Ireland vote, which is currently not the case. If I am not allowed to have a say because I do not live in the country then by that logic why are so many people who are resident in Ireland not allowed to have a say either? The current system is not even logical.Â
Good luck to you Fergus. Not a hope.
“Even for those who choose not to return to Ireland, it is our right as Irish citizens to have a say – not just for ourselves, but for our families, siblings, and future generations.”
And no, your family that live here can vote, you shouldn’t.