The General Election ??.. How will you vote in Donegal

Paddy20

Yes, once again we the people can choose, who do you think is going to come out on top in Donegal ?.

Personally, I think Fianna Fail have it.

P. :cool:

Madge

Hi Paddy, i think my thread is quite similar to yours... http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055081861

muffler

Paddy20 wrote:

Yes, once again we the people can choose, who do you think is going to come out on top in the North West ?..

Personally, I think Fianna Fail have it.

P. :cool:

Paddy do you mind if i edit the title to Donegal in place of the North West and then add a poll?

Paddy20

muffler wrote:

Paddy do you mind if i edit the title to Donegal in place of the North West and then add a poll?

Not a problem with me .

P.:cool:

muffler

Right, I've added a poll for the Donegal folk. Please note that there is a seperate poll for the Sligo/leitrim area here



Edit: You are of course encouraged to state why you will be voting for a particular party/person - just to spice things up a wee bit

Glenman

I think that Pat the Cope & Mary Caughlan will get the first two seats and that the third will be a close battle between Pearse Doherty & Dinny McGinley

Carrickman

Glenman wrote:

I think that Pat the Cope & Mary Caughlan will get the first two seats and that the third will be a close battle between Pearse Doherty & Dinny McGinley

It's unreal to think that after all that happened with the fishing industry Pat The Cope will get back in, so frustrating if Robert Mugabe ran for FF in the SW he would win hands down!

muffler

Glenman wrote:

I think that Pat the Cope & Mary Caughlan will get the first two seats and that the third will be a close battle between Pearse Doherty & Dinny McGinley

Have to agree but I think Pearse Doherty will oust McGinley - but ony by a small margin.

In the North East it is going to be even more interesting. I think Keaveny and Blaney will make it through but there is going to be a fight for the third seat which I think McDaid may just take. But he is going to have tough opposition from McHugh, McLaughlin and possibly Harte. His main threat is going to be Padraig McLaughlin who will no doubt pick up a lot of Blaney transfers

If anyone wants to see the details of the candidates around the county and country - click here and select your constituency

Glenman

Carrickman wrote:

It's unreal to think that after all that happened with the fishing industry Pat The Cope will get back in, so frustrating if Robert Mugabe ran for FF in the SW he would win hands down!

What do you mean by this?
I think that the FF TD's in Donegal are not doing enough. They should put pressure on the goverment to bring more industry to the county

Civilian_Target

I wouldn't be surprised if Blaney doesn't get back in.
Keavney will take the first seat, sure, but I think the Shinners will take a lot of Blaney votes (they're the same part of the political spectrum) so there'll be a big scrap for the last two seats between Blaney, Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

Either way, so long as the people of the North West keep electing Fianna Fail, no-one's going to listen and no-one's going to care. But chances of a change of regime in Donegal is nil.

retalivity

Unfortunately i'll not be voting as fianna fail, in their infinite wisdom, have called the election on a thursday.
But if i had the chance, neither FF, FG and definitely not SF would get my vote.
Pity more people in the county dont think the same...

muffler

retalivity wrote:

Unfortunately i'll not be voting as fianna fail, in their infinite wisdom, have called the election on a thursday.QUOTE]


How does that stop you voting or do you think that maybe they should change the date to suit you

retalivity

i live in a different constituency from where i am registered to vote (NE vs SW), so i'll not get home to cast my vote.
And as its too late to change the electoral register now, i will be one of many young donegal people, who, either through working away from home or at college/university, that will not be voting.
I personally think had this election been called at the weekend, it would not be as clearcut as some people make it out to be. And the government have pulled a fast one by making it a lot harder for thousands of opposition votes to be cast.

muffler

retalivity wrote:

And the government have pulled a fast one by making it a lot harder for thousands of opposition votes to be cast.

Im not sure I understand that statement. Are you saying that people who work away from home or are students in Dublin, Galway, Belfast etc are all anti Fianna Fail? To me its all swings and roundabouts. Surely the present coalition government candidates will loose out from student votes as much as other party candidates.

muffler

Another thing I noticed in the run up to the elections. For the last 12 months farmers were entitled to avail of something like a 70% or 80% grant for new buildings. The closing date for the grant applications was Dec. 31 last and that was also the last date that the farmers could apply for planning permission but Minister Coughlan has now extended the date for applying for the permission to June 1.

Nice political move methinks.

smashey

June 29th actually.

muffler

smashey wrote:

June 29th actually.

Thats another 4 weeks so you'll have to fleece the sheep farmers

Paddy20

Has anyone noticed how well Sinn Fein are doing on this poll, they are in the lead. !.

P.:cool:

retalivity

yeah scary....

and to reply to muffler, i know what you're sying, but
i personally think Fianna fail would suffer more than Fine
Gael and to a lesser extent labour if the students got to vote

Civilian_Target

Yep - shinners are going to do well this time, they have a lot of grassroots support and they're a very slick political machine. If you get a chance though, google up Martin McGuinness vs Jeremy Paxman, funny stuff

I would go home and do my usual, cast a vote for everyone except Blaneys and Sinn Fein (no time for either of them) but since they're having an election on a Thursday, no can do.

It's a smart political move for sure, exorcises most young voters leaving the decision making to reliable fianna failers. If you want young people to vote, you have to accommodate them!

deman

retalivity wrote:

...and to a lesser extent labour if the students got to vote

Isn't it terrible the way that students aren't allowed to vote in Ireland :P

Paddy20

deman wrote:

Isn't it terrible the way that students aren't allowed to vote in Ireland :P

I thought they had the option of a postal vote, provided they are of age. If not then it IS certainly undemocratic , maybe someone could clarify the regulation's ?..

P.:cool:

JosephQ

They wouldnt still be allowed to vote if they adopted the scottish system of postal voting:eek:

Paddy20

JosephQ wrote:

They wouldnt still be allowed to vote if they adopted the scottish system of postal voting:eek:

Eh, this is Ireland, and I posted questiona relating to Irish students :rolleyes:

P. :cool:

muffler

Paddy20 wrote:

Eh, this is Ireland, and I posted questiona relating to Irish students :rolleyes:

P. :cool:

Fair point paddy.

Could we stick to the rules and regs applicable to votes here. I dont know myself what the criteria is for postal votes but I would like to know.

Paddy20

muffler wrote:

Fair point paddy.

Could we stick to the rules and regs applicable to votes here. I dont know myself what the criteria is for postal votes but I would like to know.

Hopefully, a student can give us the answer to this important citizen's rights issue .

P. :cool:

Damien Blake

Paddy20 wrote:

Hopefully, a student can give us the answer to this important citizen's rights issue .

P. :cool:

Hi guys,

Long time no post! Students are entitled to vote either at there homes or at their term-time college address, but they should only be registered at one address at a time.

Given that this election falls during term time (in particular, exam time), many students will be unable to travel home to cast their votes during the week.

There are two ways to overcome this. First, the polls could be open either on a Saturday or Sunday, or a Friday with late opening times. Second, students are eligible to vote by post.

The Taoiseach has decided not to go for a weekend poll. I don't agree with this; I think the very least that could have been done was to have it on a Friday with a 10pm closing time. A weekend poll would have been ideal for most people, not just students.

There has been some controversy on the postal vote front. Because the election was called on a Sunday morning, the closing date for submission of forms was Tuesday afternoon. This caught many people off guard. We've been helping people fill in forms for many weeks now, and have helped a few dozen students submit them before the election was called.

The short closing date comes from the administrative overhead involved in processing the votes- they forms have to be submitted, processed, approved, ballots then sent out, voted and witnessed by the voter, then sent back to the polling station in time for polling day.

The big problem, by my mind, is that there was limited awareness of how students could register for a postal vote until it was *almost* too late. That, and the fact that the way we register people to vote is ridiculous and arcane, and could be easily fixed.

retalivity

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055088442

found this while surfing about...quite interesting

muffler

Good spot.

Must get a good gander through it later.

Civilian_Target

Paddy20 wrote:

I thought they had the option of a postal vote, provided they are of age. If not then it IS certainly undemocratic , maybe someone could clarify the regulation's ?..

P.:cool:

Yes - we can postal vote - however the postal vote deadline closed very shortly after the announcement that there was going to be an election. Certainly, being in London, there was no way I could have possibly returned a postal voting form to Donegal Co. Council on time. Since I work down the road from the embassy, I'll call in on election day with my passport and see if they let me vote...

Carrickman

What I done was I faxed the application form to the Council office on that day as I knew it wouldn’t get there in the post on time, they rang back to say that it was received and to just post the ordinal to them, I received the postal voting stuff on Saturday last.

muffler

The latest odds can be viewed here

Civilian_Target

Interesting (but OT) - Mary Harney is odds-on to lose her seat. With an ass like that, I dunno how they'd ever take it from under her!

byte

So...

So far in Donegal SW, Mary Coughlan and Pat "The Cope" Gallagher have been elected. Next seat will be between Pearse Doherty and Dinny McGinley.

Nobody elected in Donegal NE as yet after 3 counts...

Joe McHugh has the most votes so far, but sure it's all to play for!

smashey

Dinny McGinley has been elected in SW.

jimmeh

Joe Mchugh elected after the 5th count in Donegal NE, Dr James McDaid after the 7th, Mcdaids surplus got Blaney 3rd spot in what was a very tight race with Padraig MacLochlainn.

FF very lucky to get 2 seats even with over 50% of the vote. Glad its over been a long day and a decent result in the end, bar the except of Keaveney losing her seat.

quota = 9637
McHUGH, Joe = 10,034 Surplus of 397 Elected after 5th count.
McDAID, James = 10,008 Surplus of 371 Elected after 7th Count
BLANEY, Niall = 9439 quota not met, Elected after 8th count
MacLOCHLAINN, Pádraig = 8876

Civilian_Target

Yeah, I think the people of Donegal NE chose pretty well in the end. There was a definite demand for new blood with the emphatic election of McHugh, the people showed they wanted change.
SF failed to make quota, much to my surprise, and I'm glad to see it!
Blaney, for all his failings certainly deserved a seat more than Keavney, hes worked hard for Fanad which is a pretty hard-done-by part of the country.
Meanwhile, the old guard kept McDaid in his seat, who'd want to upset that status quo that brings Letterkenny such fantastic gifts as the Bernard McGlinchey town park.

As Jimmeh said, a decent result in the end, and I think it's the best one given the choice of candidates.

Paddy20

Civilian_Target wrote:

Yeah, I think the people of Donegal NE chose pretty well in the end. There was a definite demand for new blood with the emphatic election of McHugh, the people showed they wanted change.
SF failed to make quota, much to my surprise, and I'm glad to see it!
Blaney, for all his failings certainly deserved a seat more than Keavney, hes worked hard for Fanad which is a pretty hard-done-by part of the country.
Meanwhile, the old guard kept McDaid in his seat, who'd want to upset that status quo that brings Letterkenny such fantastic gifts as the Bernard McGlinchey town park.

As Jimmeh said, a decent result in the end, and I think it's the best one given the choice of candidates.

Totally agree . Along with the SW results.

P.:cool:

Civilian_Target

Paddy20 wrote:

Totally agree

^^^

Imposter! What did you do with the real Paddy20?