TWO WEBSITES designed to enable Irish voters to interact with European Parliament election candidates and compare their personal stance on issues with those of European political parties have been launched.
The sites – CandidateWatch.ie and VoteMatch.eu – are intended to increase voter participation.
CandidateWatch allows voters to question candidates about a range of topics. Politicians can then respond online and their answers can be viewed by all visitors to the site. All submissions are moderated to filter out any abusive or insulting content. The site carries profiles of all candidates who have so far declared. Further profiles will be added once the deadline for announcing candidacy closes on May 11th.
Candidates can upgrade their profiles with a photograph, a personal statement and policy document in exchange for a €100 voluntary contribution that goes towards funding the website.
On VoteMatch.eu, users are invited to answer 25 questions on EU policies. Users can ascribe extra weight to their responses, which are compared with statements furnished by all of the European Parliament’s political groupings. A result screen then shows, in descending order, which party’s policies best mirror the voter’s own views.
Both websites are being hosted in Ireland by think tank Tasc. Neither site requires registration and both are free to use.
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