Voting Rights for Immigrants in Ireland Under Threat

by ec Wed Apr 07, 2004 16:16

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2004/0407/4050245628HM1NIGERIA.html

McDowell is a nasty piece of work. Seems FF and PDs aer pandering to racism and the hang em flog em brigade to avoid humiliation in EU/Local elections.

What is the name of the famous union organiser and hall builder who dev deported?

by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland Sat Apr 10, 2004 21:25

NOTICE OF QUESTION (FOR WRITTEN ANSWER):

To ask the Minister for Environment and Local Government –

If the residency card issued to non-nationals will be accepted as identification for the purposes of voting in the local and EU elections; if not, what forms of identification will be considered acceptable for non-nationals; and what measures the Minister has put in place to ensure that eligible non-national voters are fully able to exercise their franchise during the coming elections in June, and that they are not discriminated against when presenting themselves to exercise their right to vote.

Name – Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD
Constituency – Dublin South Central
Date – 25 March 2004

- - - - - -

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Cullen): I propose to take Questions Nos. 530, 558 and 564 together.

The question of the identification available to asylum seekers and refugees for electoral purposes is under examination in my Department in consultation with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland Sat Apr 10, 2004 21:29

Question to the Commission
Proinsias De Rossa MEP PQ
Subject: Deportation of the parents of EU citizens

Is the Commission aware that Irish/EU citizen children of 11,000 parents who lawfully applied to the Department of Justice for residency before February 2003 are currently at risk of being forced to leave Ireland?

The policy of allowing for the deportation of parents of Irish/EU citizens may mean that these children could be forced to live in countries where their rights, set out in the European Convention on Human Rights will not be protected. Has the Commission been in contact with the Irish Government concerning the rights of Irish/EU citizens whose parents face deportation? Does the Commission agree that this policy discriminates against EU citizen children whose parents are third-country nationals?

Proinsias De Rossa MEP

by Grey Blocker Sun Apr 11, 2004 03:58

The person ec was referring to was Jim Gralton. The incident first came to my attention when a magazine named after him was published (sometime in the eighties?)
Anyone know how many editions of that magazine were published?

by Benny Goodman Sun Apr 11, 2004 04:04

instead make sure that recent low income immigrant and refugee families can't buy a house or get help with rental income from the health boards and have to throw all their earnings to speculators and landlords - this is about the property market.

All it costs is the deportation of a few thousand young citizens which is under way already from the looks of things. Didn't we used to let them get a bit older before we shipped them out?

They got to keep the passport.

For all the good it done a lot of them

by except Gralton Sun Apr 11, 2004 04:07

.

by TT Sun Apr 11, 2004 04:34

I believe it is extremely important for immigrant rights groups, anti-racism groups etc. to keep accurate records of Irish-born children of immigrants, particularly since their passports are being confiscated by the state. The issue must not end when these people have been deported. They must be in a position to sue the perpetrators of this outrage at some future date. Their situation must be kept 'live'.

These children are having their rights trampled on in much the same way as Irish orphans in the early and mid-Twentieth Century who were sent away to Australia and Canada to be "reared" in religious-run institutions, many of whom died without ever meeting members of their own families ever again.

The crooks and chancers who run this country must be made aware that they WILL be held accountable no matter how long it takes.

by info Sun Apr 11, 2004 13:14

Mc Dowell: The man from Uncle and the boys in blue (shirts, that is)
By Tim Pat Coogan

Sunday Indo
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1162262&issue_id=10715

Let us remember that today's Irish diaspora is so large that perhaps 70 million people on the planet are entitled to style themselves Irish. This circumstance owes its origins to dispossession, famine, dislocation, but also to the millions of people in other lands who did not hang signs in their windows saying "no dogs, blacks, or Irish", but who took them in, in the face of prejudice and economic competition.

The many thousands of Irish who today find welcome in Spanish holiday resorts are probably unaware that they are treading in the footsteps of the Irish who, four centuries ago, enjoyed the incredible boon of having Spanish citizenship automatically conferred upon them, by virtue of their Irish birth, when they were being hunted out of their own country

[....]

To speak plainly: If this society is to repel black Africans, what the hell chance does it think it has of attracting Black Protestants? If, as he argued in this paper, McDowell's motivation is concern at the strain being placed on our maternity hospitals by pregnant non-nationals he should seek to have our health services improved, not worsen our Constitution. God be with the days when we were urged to support black babies!

McDowell's racial approach apart, his anti-Sinn Fein/IRA rhetoric, carries the demerit that while it may be directed at Fine Gael fence-sitters, it is listened to and manipulated in the North, and possibly elsewhere.

Here in Ireland both Paisleys, senior and junior, are on record as having quoted McDowell's utterances approvingly as justification for defying McDowell's own government by their refusal to share power with the largest nationalist party in the six counties, thus jeopardizing the peace process.

more at...

PDF file of Coogan article
http://boston.indymedia.org/usermedia/application/4/coogan.pdf

by pc Sun Apr 11, 2004 18:31

from the strange aticle on e-voting from eoghan willians in the sunday indo

citizens from other eu countries do not have the right to vote in the referendum but are eligble to vote in teh local nad european elections and non-eu nationals have only the right to vote in local elections

well makes sense but complicated

by redjade Mon Apr 12, 2004 14:14

yeah, I agree.

There was some senator on the floor raising doubts if the Electronic Voting plans took all this into consideration. I do not know the answer, and I wonder if the government does either.

There will have to be one electronic ballot for Irish citizens, one electronic ballot for EU Citizens, and one electronic ballot for non-EU residents (is there another category?).

Looking at the official Electronic Voting website http://www.electronicvoting.ie I couldn't find any reference to this complication - I might need to read more though.

So, I think the question is, not only will the government have an answer for Benedicta Attoh's immigrant voters by the time the election happens, but also will the electronic voting machines be ready and include that answer.

Election is two months away - can the government solve this problem efficiently and on time?

by * - none Mon Apr 12, 2004 14:30

Despite having a budget of millions and fancy offices. Why? Because dissent is not tolerated any longer by 'official' Ireland. Look at Cu Cullens Activities With Regard to Planning. Look at the Grey Bloc being told to shut up in the tribunal with their laughter that echoes in homes across the land. Look at the unprecedented Mayday Scaremongering. Look at the Govt sop to (blatantly unpolled and unmeasured) Anti - War Feeling in the week of Fallujah - giving meekly out a long time after the fact about a Pirate Flag on a US Warplane at Baldonnel. Look at the IT who now even screen their letters pages to fit in with a PD type agenda.

by Kenneth Owende Mon Apr 12, 2004 17:37

"''Back home in Nigeria I was involved in politics"

What party was she involved in? If it was one of the rotten ganster parties that ally with Obasanjo I don't think people should vote for her.

by voter Mon Apr 12, 2004 18:10

Local Elections -
All registered residents.

Euro Elections -
All residents who are Irish or British citizens or are EU citizens who have proved themselves not to be registered in another country.

Dail elections -
Only residents who are Irish or British citizens.

Constitutional Referenda & Presidential elections -
Only residents who are Irish citizens.

All of course have to be over 18 and on the electoral register.

As there will be local, euro elctions as well as a referendum ther will be 3 types of voter. Those voting in one, two and three polls. Withe the electronic voting all the ballots will be in front of all voters. This presents difficulties for the polling staff, particularly those next to the machine, who will have to make sure that certain ballots are deactivated for certain voters. Previously the polling staff simply didn't hand out all the ballot papers.

by pc Thu Apr 15, 2004 21:01

was in the indo on weds

by indy fan Thu Apr 15, 2004 23:20

Red tape over ID robs immigrants of right to vote
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1163058&issue_id=10719

by Sinn Féin Mon Apr 19, 2004 20:39

Sinn Féin Representative for Dublin South East, Daithí Doolan, speaking today in Dublin, called on Gardaí to co-operate fully with people registering to vote in the forthcoming elections. Mr. Doolan said, "current legislation requires people who are applying to be included on the register of electors for June to have their forms filled out in the presence of a Garda and signed by the Garda. While encouraging constituents to register to do so I have been alarmed by the fact that Gardaí are totally unaware of their obligations under this legislation. I have spoken to one Garda station here in Dublin's inner city and was concerned when Gardaí informed me that they were unaware of their role."

by pc Mon Apr 19, 2004 20:57

there was an artilce in the indo i think saying that prisoners haven't been giving the facilities to vote either even though they are entitled to , and of course the department are looking into it....... they'll be in a hurry who else is cut out?