Local/ EU elections who will you Vote for

Real Donald Trump

What is top of your concerns when it comes to vote? I'm undecided myself atm

**Threadbans**

Jmayo

PokeHerKing

JP Liz V1

skimpydoo

None of the government parties will get my vote. I am leaning towards voting for Independents.

My top concerns are health, housing and cronyism.

Real Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088012#Comment_122088012

Swinging towards Independent myself, but my local rep who is FG has being quite vocal about the immigration crisis and tourism. Tough decisions ahead.

skimpydoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088017#Comment_122088017

I am not sure who my local reps so will have to do some online research.

For the first time in ever I’m a bit stumped.
Honestly not really feeling like voting for any of the candidates in Ireland South. Genuinely haven’t a clue who to even give even my first preference to this time around.

SupaCat95

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088019#Comment_122088019

Well they have all been fairly quiet up recently. I wouldnt vote for any currently sitting MEP or Councillor. They didnt see this developing? I had my awakening 15 years ago travelling. I will vote for any candidate previously unelected personality. They knew this was coming if not part of the plan. All their buddies are running IPAS accomodation through shell companies.

Major concerns are law and order, accomodation and defense. They are all either asleep at the wheel or part of the corruption.

Peregrinus

Not really sure that defence or immigration are areas in which local government has any function at all. A candidate in local elections who is promising action or pledging results in these areas is taking you for a ride. Focus on the candidates whose agenda revolves around matterst that local governments deal with. Give your lowest preferences to the fantasists and the grandstanders.

whisky_galore

Lot of people looking at Independents as they feel the centralised main parties do little or nothing for them, outside of big business and big property.

Fr Tod Umptious

When it comes to local elections party affiliation goes out the window for me.

I vote for the candidates that are best for my area.

I live on the edge of a large rural Electorial Area so I tend to vote for the candidates that are based closer to me than the ones at the other end of the EA, regardless of party.

If you want to protest vote, do it in the European elections.

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088098#Comment_122088098

And there is the problem with the Irish system, only vote for who you want. You don't need to go all the way 1-20. If you only like 2 canidates, vote for them, no one else. Don't waste time going lowest preferences.

ToweringPerformance

Was SF for me like all previous elections but not a snowballs chance in hell now given how they've championed immigrant rights. Will be Niall Boylan for his Irish people first approach and the anti free speech legislation opposition.

Ronald Binge Redux

No FG candidate in my LEA so far. Will then vote No 1 for the very good and hard working FF local Councillor. There are a number of declared independents but I want to look deeper before any get a preference. The local SF Councillor works hard and will get a good preference as well.

magicbastarder

I live in Dublin city council territory so will be prioritising candidates from parties who don't keep voting to keep the property tax down (and then claim they've secured funding for whatever initiative they want to take credit for).

I think it's just GP and Labour who have voted to charge the full rate.

If you live in DCC territory, this may be useful.

https://dublinvoterguide2024.ie/

Ronald Binge Redux

In the European Elections there are a massive number of candidates but Putin apologists, 'Ireland is Full' loolahs, Holy Catholic Ireland nostalgists and fascists are guaranteed not to get a preference from me. There are too many fringe candidates to vote all the way down the paper as I don't want any vote of mine to hit on them by accident.

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088225#Comment_122088225

SF have always been pro "immigrant rights".

Boylan is running for Boylan, he couldn't give a toss about you or Irish people. He cares about his "celebrity".

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088212#Comment_122088212

You need only assign preferences to as many candidates as you actually have a preferences; you can leave the rest blank. But, two points about that:

1. This isn't a "problem with the Irish system"; it's a strength. Here in Australia you're supposed to express preferences all the way down. This has the result that, if you can't form a preference between the Monarchist White Residents God Save The King Party and the Law & Order Loyalty and Traditional Values Party, neither of which you know anything about, you either have to assign them random preferences or risk your strongly-felt first preference for Labour or Liberal or the Greens or whoever being disregarded because you have spoiled your vote.
2. The preferences you can express include negative preferences. If you loathe two candidates, but loathe one of them a bit more than the other, you can reflect that in your preferences. The only candidates you should leave with no preference at all are those among whom you are completely indifferent; you would be equally happy, or equally unhappy, to be represented by any of them.

StrawbsM

The MEP list for my area looks like this….

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088142#Comment_122088142

I think there's too many independents running and that's going to split the vote too thin across the board, meaning eventually the established parties will benefit from transfers. Certainly the case in Midlands-North West anyways with 9 Independents running alongside a scatter of 'parties that aren't really parties'.

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088342#Comment_122088342

ah right, i thought you saying list them all out. We'll have to agree to disagree though, I don't give anyone I loathe a vote.

fuzzy dunlop

I wanted to post this here earlier nut couldn't find the thread when I logged on again. I think Stephen Collins is worried that the plebs might vote for someone he doesn't approve of.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/04/19/irish-voters-must-realise-that-sending-characters-to-strasbourg-could-harm-our-country/

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088212#Comment_122088212

This exactly.

Another poster said "Give your lowest preferences to the fantasists and the grandstanders".

Surely you wouldn't give them a vote at all? Why would you give a vote to someone you think is a fantasist?

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088391#Comment_122088391

FG, Labour and Green Party candidates

Who we send to Europe is important

I needed a good laugh this morning 😆

Montage of Feck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088212#Comment_122088212

But that takes the fun out of the PR system for me.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088358#Comment_122088358

Could be. Of course, it's in the nature of independents that they don't really care how their candidacy affects other candidates — they don't have any common platform with other candidates. Any benefit their candidacy may have for the established parties doesn't bother them, so they won't agree with you that, if such a benefit eventuates, that means there was "too many independents".

2 people have called to my door canvassing for my vote for local elections.

1. Social Democrat sitting councillor who kept telling me that DCC are slow at getting anything done, wh3n I asked her why a local playground still hasn't been built despite it being promised last year. In fairness she took my email address and followed up recently with updates on the project.
2. Sinn Fein candidate who I respectfully told would not be getting a vote from our household. He politely thanked me for my honesty, but never asked why.

Our local government in this country tend to be fairly powerless. Not sure it matters who gets elected really, and ithe elected councillors tend to end up being a general mix of the main parties in my LEA.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088403#Comment_122088403

that's mischaracterising what happens when you're deciding between say #20 and #21 in your preferences - you're not voting 'for' a candidate, you're stating a preference. at that stage you're indicating who you dislike more.

it's highly unlikely your preferences that far down will have any effect, but i usually vote to the end.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088389#Comment_122088389

I don't always agree with Stephen's viewpoint but on this occasion I agree with him.

Our representation in the EU matters.

Beechwoodspark

Not sure but I can tell u one thing - won’t be voting FF FG Green SF Lab Soc Dem or the loony left.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058349948/local-eu-elections-who-will-you-vote-for

In the local elections I will vote for the best person to represent my views on local issues.

I'll go all the way down the list, a few old reliables and a couple of promising newcomers will be near the top.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088431#Comment_122088431

to give credit to the SocDems - i've just confirmed that they were one of the three parties who voted (unsuccessfully) to bring LPT to standard levels for dublin. DCC is operating at something like 90% nominal headcount, which fosters an 'urgent driving out the important' way of running the organisation, i suspect. a lot of that headcount shortfall is a result of not being able to employ technical staff like engineers, etc.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2023/10/02/dublin-city-councillors-vote-to-leave-rate-of-local-property-tax-unchanged-for-2024/

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088212#Comment_122088212

If you are in a 4/5/6 seater then 4/5/6 people are going to be elected. So by only voting for 2 candidates you are leaving it up to everyone else to decide who is elected.

Personally I'd recommend that you do at least 4/5/6 votes based on the amount of seats, if necessary voting for your 'least worst' option at each step if you don't have anyone left you feel positive about. That way you theoretically have some say in every seat allocated. Entirely up to you obviously, and at another level I'm not bothered as by definition you increase the power of my lower preferences by not doing any yourself.

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088445#Comment_122088445

He is wrong for one simple reason. Ireland won't be an outlier. The implication of his argument is that Ireland should vote along orthodox lines so that we won't be the 'gadflys' of Europe. However that would be far from the case. The EU has a serious problem with democracy and accountability and there is barely a country in Europe that isn't acting accordingly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDeB3D3TdIM

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058349948/local-eu-elections-who-will-you-vote-for

Well Donald,

AllForIt

I've never voted in EU elections but I will this year, so I have to find out how it all works.

There are a couple of things I don't understand

1/ Why are candidates running as representatives of Irish political parties. In the state you'd be voting for a party to be in government but that does not apply in the EU because it doesn't work like that.

2/ Why are there constituencies? Why can't I vote against those hard lefties in Dublin. I don't want Brid Smith in the EU parliament but I can't vote her down because I'm not in her constituency.

For Forks Sake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088241#Comment_122088241

That's an interesting (and not doubt time consuming) piece of work to by the Dublin Enquirer to be fair to them to get responses from every running candidate on a range of topics.

Not really helping the notion that SF candidates won't open their mouths until head office tell them what to say there folks 🙄

Now, this is the kind of refreshing honesty I can get behind 😁

magicbastarder

there's a note on each of the responses from the SF candidates in Ballymun/Finglas:

Note: Ballymun/Finglas LEA Sinn Féin candidates Anthony Connaghan,
Mick Dowling and Leslie Kane submitted all their answers jointly.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088439#Comment_122088439

This. It is probably unlikely that your 20th or 21st preference will become effective, but stranger things have happened. If your first prefernce goes to a candidate who stays in the race a long time but is eliminated on (say) the 10th count, your vote will be transferred to your "next effective preference". After 10 counts, a lot of the people to whom you gave your 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc preference will already have been eliminated or elected, and your vote will transfer to the next candidate to whom you have assigned a preference who is still in the race. That could be quite a low preference but, if a low preference becomes effective, it's just as effective as your first preference would have been.

Conside this hypothetical: there's one seat left to be filled, and it's going to be filled by either the grandstander or the fantasist. Do you have any preference at all about which of them should fill it, or are you genuinely completely indifferent as between these two possiblities? If you have even a mild preference for one of them over the other, give that one a higher preference.

StrawbsM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088604#Comment_122088604

I’d definitely give him my vote if he were in my constituency.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088565#Comment_122088565

1. The Irish political parties (like parties in other member states) are part of political groupings in the Parliament. E.g. Fine Gael are part of the European Peoples Party (Christian Democrats). While the European political parties don't form a government, their respective strengths in the Parliament do influence the makeup of the Commission and the allocation of the Commission portfolios, and of course it also determines the allocation of parliamentary positions, chairpersons of committees, etc.
2. There are constituencies in the EU elections for the same reason that there are constituencies in national elections; to make the voter's choice manageable. It's bad enough to face an EU ballot paper with maybe 25 names on it; do you really want to have to face a ballot paper with 75 names on it? Plus, electing candidates based on geographic constituences fosters a connection between voters and their representatives.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088565#Comment_122088565

For #2 we have always used geographical constituencies. It makes sense in many ways - it allows the candidates to be able to canvass the entire constituency though admittedly that is somewhat skewed with such massive EU constituencies as Midlands North West. It also has ensured a wider spread of representatives, and has probably increased voter participation as you 'know' the candidates better. I personally wouldn't be beholden to the geographical constituency model and there may eventually be a better way.

#1 is an interesting question. I'm not sure why it is done that way. I guess it gives recognition (and hence advantage) to people who are standing for the traditional parties so it may be as simple as that. So maybe someone from FF/FG decided at the first EU elections that party names would be used and that's the way it has continued?

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088098#Comment_122088098

You can be sure that local people in communities who have experienced the so called Dept of Integration might beg to differ. What use are local councillors if they have no say in what happens locally.

These elections will be used by the public to give the incumbents an almighty kick up the arse and may well bring them crashing down.

As to OP, I'll vote for any sane candidate not aligned with above shennanigans

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088421#Comment_122088421

Oh absolutely they won't care a jot if that happens it was more a comment on what is likely to happen due to the saturation of (in the main) one issue independents.

dmakc

With regret I will not be voting for a local candidate who has helped me in the past, on principle alone I can't bring myself to vote FG this term.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088707#Comment_122088707

You can be sure that local people in communities who have experienced the so called Dept of Integration might beg to differ. What use are local councillors if they have no say in what happens locally.

Councillors, like TDs and MEPs have a specific role. A councillor has pretty much no more influence in who rents a building than you or I do. However, the council may have a role should the use of the building contravene planning or other rules.

These elections will be used by the public to give the incumbents an almighty kick up the arse and may well bring them crashing down.

To be honest, that is just a waste of a vote so don't come back complaining about how your council isn't working for you if you decide to vote for whatever anti-immigration eejit who has no actual interest in overseeing your area (as long as there are no dark skinned people around)

jmayo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088017#Comment_122088017

It the local reps who are members of any of the established parties (fg,ff, greens, sinn fein, SDs, pbp) really gave a crap about immigration crisis, tourism, or anything else affecting communities they would have already resigned from those parties.

Don't ever be fooled by fookers speaking with forked tongues telling the locals one thing, but still supporting the hierarchy in charge of this calamity.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088807#Comment_122088807

Yes but how else do the electorate communicate their dissatisfaction with the status quo? And make it heard.

I write on occasion to public reps expressing concerns. Do I ever hear back? No.

So if they're not wont to listen, then the only solution is to not vote for them and kick them out. What else would you suggest in a democracy? Either that or riot.

Take the planning issue in Wicklow ongoing, big investor building 'emergency' housing without planning. Local Ind councillor organises a public meeting, one other local rep attends. The rest hide like cowards even though planning and local governance are quite relevant. They all deserve to be removed from local office.

jmayo

I notice some are trying to play this as if local councillors who are members of the parties in government or in opposition have absolutely nothing to do with the state of things.

They may not be able to vote in the Dail, but they are giving their complete support to the people that do by simply continuing their membership of the parties and running for election for those parties.

If you do not agree with what parties are doing in the dail then how can you vote for any of their members.

It is the same party, the councillors (and MEPs) have the same leader as the TDs that troop into the dail to back their leaders in votes.

If we want change in Ireland you will not get it by voting in the same old parties.

If you want the parties in the Dail to really listen to you now, you will not get them to listen if you back their MEP and council candidates.

They will continue to p**s all over you as your vote is taken for granted.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122089192#Comment_122089192

Feel free to vote for whoever you want but the local election should not be used to punish the actions of TDs. You should vote for someone who will best manage your county in the way you want. If it turns out that your (and others) protest candidate gets a seat and turns out to be an absolute cretin who has no interest in getting services to your area or improving infrastructure, etc then don't start moaning about it.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122088689#Comment_122088689

Just for the sake of completion it's up to the individual countries to decide how many constituences they want to have. Most countries only have a single national constituency. The countries that don't are:

• Belgium (3)
• Ireland (3)
• Italy (5)
• Poland (13)
• Germany has a mix of a national constituency and 16 state level constituencies

The countries that vote on a national basis mostly use a list system.

mcgragger

doesnt matter who we vote for.

Independents cant do anything alone and the parties are beyond saving at this point.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122089376#Comment_122089376

Correct. Likewise the European elections shouldn't really be used as a protest vote (as someone recommended earlier).

That's how we ended up electing people like Dana, Kathy Sinnott and Mick Wallace to Europe.