Today the suggestion has been made for a permanent Referendum Commission after everything that happened with the Children’s Right’s referendum, but is it really viable? Would an election commission be a better idea?
Apart from recent spate of referendums (4 in the last 12 months) we do not have that many referendums, so a permanent Referendum Commission is really out of the question, it would be a quango and we are supposed to be cutting them!
But would not an Election Commission or Electoral Commission be a better solution. So what would it do?
It could do the following:
- take on the functions of the Standard’s in Public Office Commission (SIPO),
- take on the roll of registering political parties from the Clerk of the Dáil,
- take on the roll of registering nominating bodies from the Clerk of the Seanad,
- take on the roll of maining the electoral register from local authorities,
- take on the roll of the Referendum Commission during the referendum,
- take responsibility for the running of all elections as well as the appointment of returning officers,
- and take responsibility for educate the public on voting in all elections in the state.
Would that not be a better solution? Would that not be more useful? I doubt this will happen, but I think the Government should consider it at least!
The least the government should do is return the powers of the Referendum Commission it had before the first Nice Referendum! But I won’t hold my breath!!
Related articles
- Government ignored judge’s warning that voters were confused (independent.ie)
- Election watchdog begins 12-week review of Scottish referendum question (guardian.co.uk)
- Calls made for possible permanent Referendum Commissioner (newstalk.ie)
- Raft of constitutional issues still to be put to the people (independent.ie)
