With counts in Ireland’s European Parliament elections continuing into their fourth day, some questions have been raised about the cumbersome voting process. These have focused on two issues in particular: the sheer length of the ballot papers in this election and the unwieldy geography of two of the three constituencies, Midlands North West and Ireland South.
When finally elected, Ireland’s 14 MEPs will represent a population of more than 5 million people, so the scale of the contests is unavoidable. In most EU states, where some version of a party list system is in operation, geographical factors tend not to figure so large. In Ireland, though, they can be determinant. This week, Fine Gael in Ireland South and Fianna Fáil in Midlands North West may each deny themselves the chance of a second seat due to geographically injudicious candidate selection.
If Ireland is to maintain its traditional system of single transferable votes in multi-seat constituencies at European level, then the huge size of these constituencies is unavoidable. The Electoral Commission could consider breaking the two non-Dublin constituencies into three, but it is not at all clear that the resulting boundaries would be any more geographically coherent. And the smaller the constituency, the less representative it is.
But there are legitimate causes for concern. Despite a pre-election campaign by the Electoral Commission, there were still 55,000 spoiled votes cast in the European elections alone last Friday. A portion of these were deliberate, no doubt. But reports from counting centres suggest many arose from voters making basic errors such as continuing their preferences fron one lengthy ballot paper to the other.
Were there too many candidates? There is a fine balance to be struck here. Access to the ballot is a cornerstone of the democratic process. The system of State funding for established parties already militates against new entrants to the political marketplace, so any further barriers should be treated with great caution. But there may be a point at which those barriers become so low that the system itself becomes unnecessarily confusing for voters.
This election saw 73 candidates competing for 14 seats, a higher ratio of candidates to seats than is normal in Irish elections. Of these, 26 received less than 1% of the vote, while 41 received less than 3%. It is hardly surprising that some voters were befuddled by the endless list of virtual unknowns that confronted them in the polling booth. To stand as a candidate for the European Parliament in Ireland, one must either be nominated by a registered political party, lodge a deposit of €1,800 or be supported by 60 signatories. These requirements seem rather low, and a review would be warranted.