Student leaders say they are disappointed with the Government's efforts to ensure students will be able to vote in the forthcoming referendums on the Belfast Agreement and the Amsterdam Treaty. USI says only a small minority of the 100,000 students entitled to vote in the referendums will be able to exercise their franchises on May 22nd because the votes are being held at exam time and students were not given adequate notice to make the necessary arrangements to vote away from home.
They accuse the Department of the Environment, in particular, of not adequately advertising the deadline for applications for the postal vote, which passed last Wednesday, a month before the referendums will take place.
"It's frustrating for students, particularly those who would have been voting for the first time. Many of them won't be able to vote on what's probably the most important development in North-South relations in their lifetimes," says USI deputy president Helen Ryan. A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment says there was little opportunity to give notice of the closing date for the postal votes because of the exceptional circumstances surrounding the Belfast Agreement. According to the Department, advertisements were placed in all the national daily and Sunday newspapers the week before the closing date for postal vote applications and voters were reminded of the supplementary register of elections before Easter.
USI estimates that there are 250,000 voters between the ages of 18 and 25, some 100,000 of whom are students in recognised institutions in the Republic.
"We're glad the referendums are taking place on a Friday and that they are at least being held before students go abroad to work for the summer. However, we feel the Government hasn't properly considered the option of weekend elections and referendums. In continental Europe, it improves not just the student turnout but the turnout in general when ballots are held on a Sunday," Ryan says.
Ryan feels that political considerations partly determine the day on which polls are held. "The divorce referendum was held on a Friday to enable students to vote, because the Government of the day were supporting the referendum and the perception was that young people would be more liberal on the issue than the general population. However, we've been unhappy with ballots since then - the Presidential elections were held on a Thursday, and the by-elections on a Wednesday. You would have to question why the Presidential election was brought back to Thursday, after Friday polling proved so successful in the divorce referendum.
"The last general election was held on a Friday, but that was in June, when many students go abroad to work. The combined effect of these decisions disenfranchises many students who live away from home and leaves a huge bloc of people out of the electoral system."
The National Youth Council of Ireland, in a policy document on weekend voting published earlier this year, said the frequent changes in polling days and opening and closing times had "caused cynicism" among young people. They pointed out that 11 of the European Union's 15 member states hold elections on Saturday or Sunday. "The Government of the day should not be allowed to gain political advantage through the option of selecting the day of the week a vote is taken and by determining poll opening and closing times," the document concluded.
USI will run a "Use Your Vote" campaign in the run-up to the referendums and will campaign for weekend ballots in future and more flexible voting arrangements for students living away from home. In the meantime, many rural students sitting exams on Friday, May 22nd, will have to dash for the buses and the trains afterwards if they want to make their voices heard on the island's future. The fact that the polls are open until 10 p.m. should help.
The Department of the Environment advises that any student who can't vote this time around contact the local authority in their college town to ensure they're not disappointed again in the future.
