'Elections are like a candy shop'

With another election inching ever closer, political junkies are in a state of high excitement. Five of them take a break from their obsession to discuss what it is they love about election time

MATT COOPER

Presenter of The Last Wordon Today FM

I am a complete junkie when it comes to the election aftermath, the counting of votes, the whole drama of the transfers – it's The X Factordimension. Electronic voting, which thankfully was abandoned, would have robbed the experience of all that drama which I think engages people in the process.

I do think there has been a degree of political disengagement in recent elections. I was editor of the Sunday Tribunein 2002 and was looking forward to a boost in sales during the campaign. We had really strong coverage, broke lots of good stories and yet sales didn't budge. The following week Roy Keane walked out of Saipan and sales rocketed.

You get the sense that people are much more engaged now. I am looking forward on the radio programme to having a debate about what kind of country we want in the future. People know who they blame and why they blame them but I think it’s important that the discussion is not dominated by that, because as a talking point it’s redundant now. I want to hear ideas from politicians who are going to be brave enough to bring in real change.

This election is going to be different because: "Hopefully people will vote with the national picture in mind rather than a certain politician who might fix a pothole on their road"

JENNIFER O’CONNELL

Editor of thejournal.ie, an online community for news

I could say that I love elections because they give us all a sense of ownership but the truth isn’t quite so noble; it’s the drama and the excitement that I am addicted to. The internet is going to be a silent force in the upcoming contest and I actually think this may turn out to be the first “Twitter Election”.

It’s a very seductive medium for younger candidates and I think the older ones will also have to start communicating their message via Twitter. The campaigns themselves are exciting because you are always looking out for that watershed moment when everything turns, like during the “Rumble in Ranelagh” in 2007. I think this year that moment could happen on the internet with a tweet or a blog post.

I’ve never been in a count centre before, that’s a big hole in my life experience as a politics junkie, so this time around as editor of thejournal.ie I expect to be rectifying that. I am particularly looking forward to experiencing first-hand that uniquely Irish electoral celebration of political supporters hoiking successful candidates on to their shoulders whether the newly elected people are men in their 50s or women in short dresses.

Most memorable Irish election moment:"A toss up between Michael McDowell's emotional speech after he lost to John Gormley in 2007 and Nora Owen losing her seat in 2002"

VERONICA WALSH

Cognitive behavioural therapist and founder of the Dublin Current Affairs Meetup Group

The first election I got addicted to was Bush v Gore in 2000. Up until then I hadn’t been particularly interested in politics. I grew up in a working-class household where we didn’t talk about politics other than to call Haughey a cute hoor in an admiring way. But that one woke me up.

I’d fallen for the Clinton Camelot like everybody else and then this eejit Bush pops up. I was fascinated that somebody so stupid could be taken seriously. That election was horrible and it was fascinating. All human life was there, and I fell in love with it.

My day job is all about behaviour and modern psychology so elections are like a candy shop for me. Watching the spin and spoofing, sorting out the serious contenders from the chancers. This election will be different because people are more concerned and informed. I believe we’ll turn out in big numbers and that quite a few very big-name career politicians are going to be “Dick Spring”ed. I think all has changed, and changed utterly. Bring it on.

Most memorable Irish election moment: "Watching Michael McDowell throw his toys out of the pram when he lost his seat was most amusing."

DAVID COCHRANE

Founder of politics.ie

On Tuesday my website kept crashing because 45,000 people logged on to discuss everything that was going on with the government and the bailout. I think it reflects how in these difficult times politics is engaging people more than ever – that was the most visitors in one day to the site since I launched it in late 2002.

I first got into politics when I was in third year of secondary school. It was around the same time as we got Sky News in the house and I developed a huge interest in UK elections. The first Irish election I got seriously interested in was in 2002 because it was the first one in which I could vote.

For me, the election is all about the numbers. I love the polls. I love the count nights. I love staying up all night trying to figure out who will be elected or who will lose their seat. During an election, the seats and who might win them are constantly in my head. I’ll go down to see my parents in north Kildare and quiz them about the local candidates.

I think the last election was probably the most interesting with the demise of the PDs. I got a call from somebody in the RDS saying McDowell was going to lose his seat, we put it up on the site and Gormley’s people were on to us right away because we had more information than they did.

Luckily my boyfriend is also interested in politics, but he does sometimes get fed up – he asked me to watch The Frontlinein another room the other night.

Political accolade: Green TD Paul Gogarty recently tweeted that Cochrane was "the master of the pit of vipers".

JACK MURRAY

Former adviser to the PDs and managing director of mediacontact.ie

For me, elections are the essence of live theatre, it’s 48 hours of joy, despair and elation. I’m a big sports fan so I equate election results with 4.40pm on a Saturday when the football results come in, I get the same excitement.

Elections are all about memorable moments – we’ve already had a Vincent Browne moment – like when in the really dull election of 2002, Bertie Ahern did a photo op beside the largest boring machine in the world at the Port Tunnel.

I was in Citywest the night when Nora Owen lost her seat when electronic voting was used for the first time – it’s just a really weird political drama in which candidates find out whether or not their goose is cooked. I also love the way in this country, well-known national politicians can be beaten by candidates who nobody knows campaigning on bizarre local issues.

Favourite election ritual: "When in the count centre they open those strange Egyptian-looking boxes and you start to see the cryptic jigsaw being put together."