Today the NUI have informed me that, of 103,000 ballot papers issued by registered post, only 15,000 completed ballots have been returned so far. A further 18,600 have been returned to the NUI as undeliverable, of which 600 have been re-posted to voters on request.
This leaves around 70,000 votes which have yet to be cast and which are currently either in voters’ homes or waiting to be collected at post offices.
That situation is bad and calls for urgent reform of the voting system.
The NUI register which has more than 103,000 named voters is very much out of date, incomplete and patchy. The use of Registered Post is causing huge difficulties too.
The fact is that in most modern homes there is frequently no-one there to accept personal delivery of registered letters. Centralised postal centres mean that many people have to travel many miles and at inconvenient times to recover undelivered ballot papers.
While voters can, and should, arrange with NUI for redelivery of papers, this is a cumbersome process.
I would urge all NUI voters – both at home and abroad – to track down their ballot papers from their post office or from the NUI and to cast your vote within the next twelve days.
It is vital that the members of the 25th Seanad are focused on reforming the Upper House and introducing a universal electoral franchise.
In October 2013, the Irish people rejected the attempt to abolish the Seanad and centralise power to a single chamber dominated by the executive. In the wake of the people’s ‘wallop’, our Taoiseach gave the impression that he was in favour of Seanad Reform. But actions speak louder than words:
- They chose to ignore reform legislation introduced by Fergal Quinn and Katherine Zappone.
- They promised to enact the 7th Amendment to the Constitution (voted for by the people in 1979) to extend the franchise on the university panels to all third level graduates. Even this promise was not fulfilled. This must change.
- They commissioned Maurice Manning and others to compile a Report on Seanad Reform, which recommended that a majority of the vocational panels would be elected by citizens but they consigned the Report to gather dust on the shelves.
- Even Fine Gael’s 2016 election manifesto rowed back on the Manning Report and could only commit to referring the issue of Seanad Reform to yet another, procrastinating “citizens’ convention”.
- But now we hear that other parties are being offered full and early implementation of the Manning Report in the current negotiations for forming a government.
We must be wary of a political fudge designed to preserve the status quo and ensure that power remains with TDs, senators and county councillors in the most undemocratic stitch-up.
My commitment is that, if elected to the Seanad, I will do my utmost to ensure that this is the last time the Seanad will be elected in such an undemocratic fashion