Voting by proxy for Constitution

esperanza

Living in France, not a french citizen, so not entitled to vote in French referendum on European constitution, but eager to vote in Irish referendum, whenever it is due to take place, and want to know how I go about voting by proxy as an Irish citizen here in France

Can anyone help???

A Dub in Glasgo

AFAIK, you lose any form of voting rights once you leave Ireland. Unlike the majority of our European partners, Ireland does not extend any voting rights to emigrants.

Calina

Have a look at this:
http://www.oasis.gov.ie/government_in_ireland/elections/registering_to_vote_in_ireland.html
It states clearly that you need to be resident in Ireland unless you are a diplomat posted abroad, or a member of the Defence Forces or Garda Siochana. Proxy voting doesn't seem to be an option.

Quantum

esperanza wrote:

Living in France, not a french citizen, so not entitled to vote in French referendum on European constitution, but eager to vote in Irish referendum, whenever it is due to take place, and want to know how I go about voting by proxy as an Irish citizen here in France

Can anyone help???

No offense - but I hope not. I personally don't agree with the vote being given to expats.

esperanza

Find it a little unfair that voting rights are not extended to irish people currently not living in ireland. Wouldn't call myself an expat, as I am not living here on a permanent basis. So has a date been decided for the irish referendum yet?

mycroft

Quantum wrote:

No offense - but I hope not. I personally don't agree with the vote being given to expats.

Seeing as he's living in the EU and the vote is on the eu constitution don't you think thats unfair?

flogen

It's probably some old law put in place because of the huge levels of Irish emigrants, basically the vote could be decided by people who wern't effected or even in the know.

Seems a bit silly now, but not something I'd get on any high horse about.

SkepticOne

mycroft wrote:

Seeing as he's living in the EU and the vote is on the eu constitution don't you think thats unfair?

But it is also about Ireland as a nation ratifying it. If it were a real constitution as opposed to a treaty then it would make sense for EU citizens regardless of where they were to have a vote on it.

mycroft

SkepticOne wrote:

But it is also about Ireland as a nation ratifying it. If it were a real constitution as opposed to a treaty then it would make sense for EU citizens regardless of where they were to have a vote on it.

He's living in the EU and is a citizen of the country ratifying an Eu wide treaty, therefore he should be allowed vote

Was watching ITV earlier, a country voting a defend a 35hr working week is a country that is sane.....

I'd imagine there are a lot of people working abroad who are still registered to vote at their families address in Ireland.
Have you become a French resident?

SkepticOne

mycroft wrote:

He's living in the EU and is a citizen of the country ratifying an Eu wide treaty, therefore he should be allowed vote

Was watching ITV earlier, a country voting a defend a 35hr working week is a country that is sane.....

I would agree that he has been disenfranchised but as far as I can tell, this ratification is done on a individual national basis. Therefore the rules applying are those determined by the nation states themseves. Although he may be affected by Ireland's decision since he is living in another EU country, it is a matter for Ireland to decide for itself using whatever rules it has. As such it is not really different to other referenda.

Perhaps at a future date residency should be the main decider on EU issues and not citizenship. Alternatively Ireland could intraduce expat voting although this would probably not be limited to other EU countries.

Quantum

mycroft wrote:

Seeing as he's living in the EU and the vote is on the eu constitution don't you think thats unfair?

I have always held the view that people who are not subject to the taxation and laws of a land should not have the right to a say on decisions that affect those laws and taxes.
Sure, if a peson is only abroad temporarily I would agree with them voting, but not long or medium term emmigre's.

Calina

Quantum,

logically speaking, according to your view then, all people paying tax in this country should be allowed to vote in all elections including constitutional referenda as opposed to being limited to certain elections depending on your passport, right? So all those EU citizens working here should be entitled to vote?

ishmael whale

My guilty little secret. I hope the French vote it down, so we don’t have to.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=27&si=1402326&issue_id=12518

Brussels looks into the abyss as French No vote hits 54pc
POLLS predicting that France and the Netherlands will reject the European constitution raise doubts about plans to expand the EU and threaten to paralyse decision making. A survey in France yesterday for Paris Match magazine, showing 54pc against the constitution with 46pc in favour, became the tenth poll in 10 days to put the No camp ahead.
At the same time, a succession of surveys in the Netherlands has given opponents of the constitution an even larger majority. France holds its referendum on Sunday and the Netherlands will vote three days later. A "no" vote would derail a host of plans and hinder efforts to admit Turkey to the EU. ….

esperanza

Does anyone know when the irish referendum campaign starts?

bonkey

I notice that suggestions have already been made about re-running referenda. For example...Deutsche Welle have an article where it says:

Rejection in a smaller country could be reversed with a second trip to the polls, as happened with in Ireland with the Nice Treaty in 2001. But that's a step French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has ruled out.

"France will express itself, it will express itself once," he told the BBC. "There will be no second round or second chance. Once she has spoken, her message is clear."


What I dislike about the comment is that while the French are perfectly correct in deciding that they will ask one time and one time only, it is put alongside the comment that smaller countries might ask more than once. Sure...its a newspaper, not EU policy, but its somewhat disheartening to see the media (or anyone) in these larger nations deciding that they should hold the smaller nations to a different standard then themselves.

jc

Doctor Benway

esperanza wrote:

Does anyone know when the irish referendum campaign starts?

The Bill was only published today, so it'll be quite a while. I think the referendum is due to be held (if it is actually held) next year.

Quantum

Calina wrote:

Quantum,

logically speaking, according to your view then, all people paying tax in this country should be allowed to vote in all elections including constitutional referenda as opposed to being limited to certain elections depending on your passport, right? So all those EU citizens working here should be entitled to vote?

I don't believe that's a logical conclusion. However I do believe that people who come to live in another EU country and become resident there for a significant amount of time (years not months) should be considered for voting.

Doctor Benway

Quantum wrote:

I don't believe that's a logical conclusion. However I do believe that people who come to live in another EU country and become resident there for a significant amount of time (years not months) should be considered for voting.

You can already do this (in Ireland anyway) by becoming a naturalised citizen.