Aontú TDs Peadar Tóibín and Paul Lawless have introduced a Bill to the Bills Office in Leinster House which seeks significant reforms to the process through which a person can seek to get onto the ballot paper in a presidential election.
Among the changes being proposed is a reduction in the number of signatures from Oireachtas members required to get onto the ballot paper from twenty to twelve, a reduction in the number of local authorities whose support the prospective candidate must garner from four councils to three, and an additional provision which would allow an individual contest the election if they were nominated by 110 sitting councillors in the State.
Speaking today, Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín TD said:
“In the recent presidential election, we had a situation where there were only two candidates in the race for the Áras, and a significant portion of the electorate felt their views were represented by neither candidate and opted to either not vote, spoil their vote, or cast a vote for a withdrawn candidate. 317,000 people either spoiled their vote or voted for a withdrawn candidate. This result is the biggest democratic deficit that has ever happened in the history of the state. Its extraordinary how the political establishment have sought to keep their heads down, ignore this issue and carry on regardless. In any other country this would have opened up a significant debate with real efforts to resolve the crisis. Not here in Ireland though. One week of hand-wringing and then move on. The government must listen to these people and support Aontú’s bill to relax the nomination process and ensure we have more diverse healthy democratic presidential campaigns and elections in future with a wide range of candidates from across the political spectrum on the ballot paper”.
Aontú TD Paul Lawless said: “In the aftermath of the election the government pretended that they had learned their lessons and were going to listen to these 300,000 people, but now is the chance for them to put their money where their mouth is and support Aontú’s Bill. In the race to get onto the ballot paper this year some individuals came very close to getting the required number of councils or Oireachtas members, but just fell short by a small margin. The big parties blocked these individuals from getting onto the ballot paper, which made for a very one-dimensional campaign featuring just two candidates, and leaving a lot of people feeling disenfranchised and unwilling to take part in the electoral process”.
