‘Lower voting age to 16 and hold polls on weekends’

THE voting age should be dropped to 16 and referendums should be on weekends to encourage higher turnout, the Government has been told.

The Citizens’ Assembly held a series of debates and votes on the subject with all 99 members backing a proposal for referendums to take place on Saturdays or Sundays.

They also backed calls for greater availability of postal voting but rejected making voting compulsory.

The assembly recommended that the Referendum Commission should be allowed to give an opinion on significant issues that come under factual or legal dispute in the heat of a campaign, including on social media. The members also called for it to be developed into a permanent Electoral Commission.

Retired judge Mary Laffoy, chair of the Citizens’ Assembly, again praised the work of the volunteer members and the experts who gave presentations or advised the debate over the two days. ‘I will aim to finalise the report of the assembly on this topic and furnish to the Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as possible,’ she said.

The other proposals which got the overwhelming support (above 80%) of the assembly included greater provision of voter education on referendums, freedom to vote in any polling station, and spending limits for parties, groups and individuals campaigning in referendums.

The assembly recommended that a citizens’ initiative, a type of petition, could be used to put an item on the agenda for decision by the Oireachtas. A smaller majority of the Citizens’ Assembly, between 50 and 80%, recommended a ban on anonymous donations to political parties. Similar margins also backed the option to allow voting in the weeks before the poll, online voting, and people to vote even if they have been out of the country for five years or less.

The next meeting of the Citizens’ Assembly will be on March 3 and 4, when it will examine fixed-term parliaments.