What is top of your concerns when it comes to vote? I'm undecided myself atm
**Threadbans**
Jmayo
PokeHerKing
JP Liz V1
None of the government parties will get my vote. I am leaning towards voting for Independents.
My top concerns are health, housing and cronyism.
Swinging towards Independent myself, but my local rep who is FG has being quite vocal about the immigration crisis and tourism. Tough decisions ahead.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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:
The MEP list for my area looks like this….
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'.
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.
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/
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?
FG, Labour and Green Party candidates
Who we send to Europe is important
I needed a good laugh this morning 😆
But that takes the fun out of the PR system for me.
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.
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.
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.
I don't always agree with Stephen's viewpoint but on this occasion I agree with him.
Our representation in the EU matters.
Not sure but I can tell u one thing - won’t be voting FF FG Green SF Lab Soc Dem or the loony left.
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.
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.
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.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wb.vanillicon.com/v2/b1aba361f5b77a8017be035a0d4fc285.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e68aa2b0e039b12ade8384a2f42841c6.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w0.vanillicon.com/v2/04cbf1b64e8b0e561c543c5b1091ba30.svg)
