Can we vote?

afatbollix

Might sound silly but could us Irish over here vote?

In the Irish elections that is..



Also how do I get onto the electorate to vote here?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

afatbollix wrote: »

Might sound silly but could us Irish over here vote?

In the Irish elections that is..



Also how do I get onto the electorate to vote here?

Yep... just bring your passport and proof of residency to the irish embassy well in advance of the election. You vote there too on election day.

bluedolphin

Eh, the correct answer is no, actually.

From Citizens' Information:

If you are an Irish citizen living abroad you cannot be entered on the Register of electors. This means that you cannot vote in an election or referendum here in Ireland. (The only exception to this is in the case of Irish officials on duty abroad (and their spouses) who may register on the postal voters list).

GarRo247

bluedolphin wrote: »

Eh, the correct answer is no, actually.

From Citizens' Information:

It says there you can't vote if you are living abroad, if you still own a house in Ireland, and have bills or whatever to prove it, you can vote, its for people who are away on a year working visa or that sort of thing.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

My apologies for the misinformation in that case, I voted here in Berlin for the European elections in 2009 and thought the case was the same.

TheUsual

No. And it's a good thing too.
Imagine all the many generations of Irish worldwide with voting rights deciding the next Government of 4.7 million people. They could decide our future without knowing what is actually happening here - I worked abroad for some years and you lose touch with the day to day worries that go on here in Ireland.

munchkin_utd

well..........
to say that those abroad dont know what is going on in Ireland is false.
I would say that many passport holders who are second generation or that have a very weak link to the nation.

Many of us born and bred in Ireland follow the irish news possbily even more closely than a lot in Ireland itsself.

The problem with the politican system in Ireland was that the politicans during the boom (and over the history of the state) are there simply to fix small problems of their constituents, parking fines, planning permission, get criminals out of jail etc.

The bigger picture is never considered by anyone execpt ministers, and even they are often trying to pull strokes for votes for their locality!

If anything its an arguement for the vote for non Irish Irish that we ARENT looking for anything in return for the vote.
We only want the country to progress and prosper and have no alterior motives for voting one person in rather than the other.

Fysh

munchkin_utd wrote: »

well..........
to say that those abroad dont know what is going on in Ireland is false.
I would say that many passport holders who are second generation or that have a very weak link to the nation.

Many of us born and bred in Ireland follow the irish news possbily even more closely than a lot in Ireland itsself.

The problem with the politican system in Ireland was that the politicans during the boom (and over the history of the state) are there simply to fix small problems of their constituents, parking fines, planning permission, get criminals out of jail etc.

The bigger picture is never considered by anyone execpt ministers, and even they are often trying to pull strokes for votes for their locality!

If anything its an arguement for the vote for non Irish Irish that we ARENT looking for anything in return for the vote.
We only want the country to progress and prosper and have no alterior motives for voting one person in rather than the other.

You already have a thread in the Living Abroad forum about whether the Irish abroad should have the ability to vote.

Since this thread is about the specific question of "can the Irish living abroad vote in an Irish election?", with a specific answer of "no", I don't see any point in having it turn into another conversation about whether or not we should have the vote, especially since judging by the other thread nothing much is likely to come from it except moaning...

bluedolphin

GarRo247 wrote: »

It says there you can't vote if you are living abroad, if you still own a house in Ireland, and have bills or whatever to prove it, you can vote, its for people who are away on a year working visa or that sort of thing.

Yes.

The OP asked how to "vote here". I understood that in the physical sense, which is not possible. In the scenario which you have outlined it would require (a) being ordinarily resident in Ireland (i.e. having an Irish address and being on the register at that address) and (b) returning to your local constituency where you are registered to vote on polling day. The only way to physically "vote here" is by postal vote which is only for a few occupational circumstances. I suspect the query arose from the fact that many other countries (including the UK, France) offer citizens living abroad the opportunity to vote in their local embassy or else by postal vote.