SDLP Youth: One President, One Island, One Vote

by Eddie Valentine Fri Feb 01, 2008 18:47

I totally oppose this idea. Why should people not subject to the laws have a right to have a say? Why should immigrants living in the South not have a vote in Dáil elections and referenda? SDLP and SF are not calling for this!

Why is voting for the president make you Irish? You are Irish, do you need a vote for a useless time wasting money wasting old person to validate your "Irishness"? I want to see the presidency abolished. It's a waste of time, it's a waste of money, and it's only there to stop any left-wing Dáil going "too far".

I also strongly disagree with Irish citizens living abroad looking for votes in Dáil, Seanad or presidential elections. Irish citizens living abroad actually outnumer the citizens living in the State! So if this was given it would mean that people removed from Ireland (many never setting foot in the state) would out-vote us!

I have no problem with very liberal citizenship laws. I fully agree that people born in NI should be full citizens. But they should only vote in elections if they are going to be subject to the laws and taxes they vote for.

PS - Sinn Féin's support for Mary McAleese was a reason there was no election in 2004. SF supporting a right-winger not for the first or last time.

by Barry - 32 csm Thu Jan 31, 2008 21:22

if your goal is electing someone to the aras then whats preventing you from doing that is the fact your country is partly occupied by a foreign power and partitioned , thereby frustrating the practice of national democracy . The SDLP actively campaigned for partition to be a conceivably permanent situation under the GFA and for the acceptance of the principle its a legitimate act for Britian to frustrate the practice of a national democracy on a conceivably permanent basis .
.They also helped negotiate , along with sinn fein , a situation in which part of the Irish nation was to be accepted without any constitutional challenge at all as an integral part of the United Kingdom . The best they can hope for is a voting system for emigrant citizens under such an arrangement , similar to what the polish community here currently enjoy during elections in their home country . As such its a cross border initiative , not an All Ireland one . Theres a difference . When Linfeild play Bohemians its a cross border encounter , not an all Ireland one .
The only way in which the practice of a national all Ireland democracy can be acheived is by addressing the obstacles which preclude the practice of a national democracy . Whilst the SDLP and other constitutional nationalists continue to prop up and argue for the very obstacles to such a democracy their complaints of a lack of democracy seem illogical in the extreme .

by Sceptic Thu Jan 31, 2008 17:20

The SDLP youth wing has a point and are honourable people. However this is really an SF demand that is designed to put Gerry Adams in the Park. Then we would have people like Slab Murphy (“a good republican” according to Adams ) being a frequent and distinguished visitor to the Aras as well as IRA people and ETA people and the like. As Commander in Chief of the Army people might get confused as to which particular army Gerry would be referring to. He would also be receiving diplomats despite his own army having killed members of the Irish diplomatic corp. It would raise a host of difficulties.

by Bertie Thu Jan 31, 2008 16:22

Fianna Fail are romancing SDLP to further their rather strange approach to Republicanism.
They claim that they will not allow members stand in Westminister, but some people never
learn, do they?
Look at the splitting of the Greens before embarking on projects that are grounded in
neo-globalisation masking itself as representational politics. a lot of people in the 26 counties
do not vote because there is such a dearth of actual representation by centrist parties in the south.