31^st August 2011

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has slammed the Fine Gael/Labour Government for setting the polling day for the upcoming Presidential Election & Referenda on a Thursday.

Yesterday, Minister for Environment Phil Hogan T.D. signed the Polling Day Order unfairly scheduling polling to take place on a Thursday, on October 27^th, which will prevent thousands of students from being able to cast their vote.

If the election is held on a Thursday, many citizens, who work or attend college outside of their constituency, will be unable to make it home on time to vote.

In order to register for a postal vote, students must have their registration forms signed by their college and returned to their local authority within 48 hours of the polling day order being signed by the Minister.

USI is calling on the Government to begin holding all elections on a Saturday, as is common across the rest of Europe.

USI President, Gary Redmond, said:

“Minister Hogan’s comments that the election must be held on a Thursday to avoid paying overtime for a weekend count are nothing short of laughable. Before being elected to Government, both the Fine Gael and Labour parties insisted that all elections to be held on a weekend date. However, now that they are in Government, they have changed their tune.

The fact that the impending Presidential Election is to be held on a Thursday has excluded many people from being able to vote. This includes thousands of students across Ireland. It is physically impossible for students and other people to get home from work and college in good time to vote on a weekday.

There is only a 48 hour window after an election is called for students to register for a postal vote – this is too short and requires an immediate change in legislation. Furthermore, in order for students to register for a postal vote, they must have the relevant forms stamped by their college. As the students who would need to have these forms stamps are at home for the summer this is an impossible situation.

For the planned midweek election, schools and other public buildings will have to close, which will caused major disruption to the general public. All elections should be held on Saturday as is common across the rest of the continent.

All elections and referenda need to be accessible for the students of Ireland, who are the future taxpayers of this country and will be ultimately responsible for the recovery of the economy.”