Friday is polling day - Have Your Say and Vote

Sully

This coming Friday, February 25th is election day. This is the day you get your chance to go to your local polling booth and vote for a new government. For far too long we have put up with the same party in government which has brought us down the path of destruction, put us in one of the worst financial crisis the country has ever seen and forced many young people to emigrate away from Ireland to find a job. Enough is enough.

It is important that you use your chance to vote - not voting or a spoiled vote wont make any positive difference. The only person who will see the spoiled vote is the person counting the ballots; the candidates themselves won't see it, so you're just shooting yourself in the foot. People across the world are fighting for democracy - in Egypt and Libya being two recent examples. We need to use our democratic right and Stand Up and Vote. Lets have our say.

Not sure who to vote for? Thinking of not voting because you think nobody is any good or not sure of their policies? Here is what you should do;

- Visit the individual political parties websites, or an Independent candidate, and see what they stand for. Look at their manifesto and policy documents. See which policies you prefer.

- Check up your local candidate(s) for that party. See what you make of them - do you think they would be good speakers in the Dail? Would they represent your area well? Were they elected previously, either locally or nationally, and how did they preform? See what they stand for themselves, have a look on Boards.ie for peoples thoughts - a lot of regional forums are discussing their local candidates.

- Be careful what you read through the media, some media sources can be biased. The same applies to Unions (including college unions). Ask friends and family or those you know knowledgeable on politics for pointers.

- Remember, the General Election is based on national issues. Not so much local issues.

AdMMM wrote:

For our local elections, they are very much local because you want to elect someone to represent your own estate/street/general area and areas outside your ward don't come into consideration at all. When we elect someone in the General Elections (not National as you called them), we are electing someone to represent the interests of our constituency in the Dail within the national framework. It is absolutely vital that the people we elect are competent because they will be representing our interests on important issues (many of which are local) such as securing a University for Waterford and will have to tackle our chronic unemployment.

- There is often far to much focus on a leaders "ability". Ignore this and vote on the party policies and the candidates in your area. They are the ones representing you, voting on the issues and implementing the policies.

Any questions - ask away.

Visit www.witpolsoc.ie for the main party manifestos and a list of South East candidates from the main parties.