The Labour Party Spokesperson on the Environment and Local Government, Mr Eamon Gilmore, today urged the government to give a commitment that polling in the forthcoming general election will be held on a weekend in order to allow students and others who work away from home to vote.
"At the recent referendum, tens of thousands of students were effectively denied the right to vote because polling was held on a Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. While there is a facility for students to get a postal vote, the procedure is convoluted and the reality is that most students cannot vote if polling is held mid-week," he said.
Mr Gilmore pointed out that the fact the general election is likely to be in May, which will be during most third level exams.
Calling on the Minister for the Environment to make an order fixing the polling day for either a Saturday or Sunday, Mr Gilmore said that "Such an arrangement would not only facilitate students, but would also give other citizens a better opportunity to make their voice heard at the ballot box. "Weekday polling discriminates against workers who are away from home on the day of the vote. The hours of voting make it difficult for many people to vote. Many people have already begun the commute to work before polling stations open and are barely home and ready to vote before the polls close at 9 p.m., as happened in the referendum," he said.
As an example of the effectiveness of weekend voting, Mr Gilmore said that the Tipperary South by-election of June 2001 was held on a Saturday and that, though it was the second by-election in the constituency within 12 months, there was an increase in turnout of around 3 per cent.
"This shows that there is support for weekend voting and that holding the general election on a Saturday or Sunday would - at very least - help stem the decline in voter turnout experienced over recent years," he said.
Labour’s Local Government spokesman also said that any attempt to hold the election in mid-week could only be interpreted as a clear sign that Fianna Fáil fears the youth/student vote.
