Submission to the Public Consultation on an
Electoral Commission
Second Republic
Authors Oliver Moran Jonathan Victory About Second Republic Second Republic is a non­partisan group campaigning for political reform in Ireland since November 2010. The group advocates the need for reform and specifically for the engagement of citizens in deliberative and participatory processes leading towards reform. Among its activities, the group lobbied for the establishment of the Constitutional Convention and continues to campaign for its recommendations to be implemented by the Oireachtas. The group’s founding member was short­listed for a 2013 Volunteer of the Year award in recognition of Second Republic’s work in encouraging citizenship and democracy in Ireland. Copyright © 2015 Second Republic Cover photograph © 2007 Jean­Pierre Lavoie This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit ​http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/​. Introduction
The proposal to establish an electoral commission was made in the fourth report of the Constitutional Convention. That report dealt with reform of the Dáil electoral system. Second Republic believes that the Government’s response to the recommendations contained in that report demonstrates a lack of political will within departmental government to implement progressive and genuine electoral reform. The response saw recommendations for constitutional reform of the electoral system rejected out of hand. Policy recommendations in the same report were all accepted by the government. However, the recommendation to establish an electoral commission aside, these were all either (a) kicked to touch by a decision to leave their implementation to the Electoral Commission; or (b) passed off with a remark that much is being done at departmental level already. All of these responses raise questions about the ability of departmental government to deliver on reform of the electoral system. For example, the latter response to recommendations on policy reforms raises an immediate question that if effective work is being done at departmental level, why then did the Constitutional Convention find cause to make these policy recommendations? The only recommendation from the report that is clearly being followed up on is for the establishment of an electoral commission. However, even on that, it is noteworthy that the promise to establish an electoral commission was contained in programmes for government in 2007, 2009 and 2011. This public consultation is only happening in 2015, two years after the recommendation of the Constitutional Convention. The Government’s decision to roll back on a commitment to hold a referendum on voting age reform further demonstrates a lack of commitment, priorities or willingness to engage in electoral reform at cabinet level. So too does the delay in responding to the fifth report of the Constitutional Convention on extending voting rights in presidential elections to citizens abroad. The admission (not made to the Oireachtas) that this reform is potentially too “challenging to introduce and to manage” for departmental government clearly shows that deficiencies exist. Second Republic sees the establishment of an electoral commission as a means to set in play a body with responsibility for effective and impartial reform as well as effective on­going management of the electoral system outside of these deficiencies in departmental government. 1 Establishment
Independence and accountability
As a consequence of the failures of departmental government to bring forward electoral reform, Second Republic believes that responsibility for reform and management of the electoral system needs to be separated out into an independent electoral commission. This body should be entirely independent and capable of administering all elections and referendums, engaging the public in information campaigns and consultations, deciding fairly on electoral policy, including constituency review, and making recommendations for legislative and constitutional change. As a focused independent body with the resources to review legislation and make recommendations for change, the recommendations of the Electoral Commission should be implicitly trusted by government and allowed progress through the Oireachtas. We therefore recommend an electoral commission that is accountable to the Oireachtas directly but capable of driving forward a reform agenda independent of departmental government. We believe that this would reflect international best practice and should be established by no later than the end of 2017. Powers and responsibilities
Second Republic wants an electoral commission that can advance a thorough reform agenda. As a citizen­orientated group, it is critical to us that public consultations and the recommendations of citizen­based initiatives (such as the Constitutional Convention) drive the work, policies and recommendations of the Electoral Commission at all times. We believe that the work of the Electoral Commission should be conducted from a perspective that sees voting as a fundamental right that should be easily accessible by all citizens and residents. The Electoral Commission should make efforts to see that voting is a process in which the state actively engages citizens and residents. Most obviously, an independent and capable electoral commission could conduct the urgent work of modernising our electoral register, as recommended by the Constitutional Convention. It could set about increasing ease of voting for all citizens: from providing straightforward voter information to automatically registering citizens and residents as voters. The Electoral Commission could oversee policy relating to the conduct of election campaigns such as policy on the placement of posters and leaflets and developing new policy in relation to internet advertising (e.g. how to implement the moratorium in an increasingly online media environment). 2 In order to be able to deliver a comprehensive reform agenda, however, we want an electoral commision that is also capable of making recommendations for legislative and constitutional change to the Oireachtas. To deliver truly deliver legislative and constitutional reforms, the Electoral Commission needs to have independent voice and be able to put forward its recommendations, based on public consultation, independently and publicly. For example, the Electoral Commission could review the implications of the McKenna judgement and make recommendations on changes to the responsibilities of the Referendum Commission. These recommendations should be taken seriously by both government and the Oireachtas in the same way as recommendations of the Law Reform Commission. 3 Reform agenda
The sections below deal with an immediate reform agenda for the Electoral Commission, as recommended by the Constitutional Convention. These should form the initial agenda of work for the Electoral Commission. Engaging citizens
The Government has already accepted that the Electoral Commission should be tasked with implementing these recommendations of the Constitutional Convention: ● Greater access to postal voting ● Extended voting hours ● Change alphabetical order of candidates on ballot papers We say that two other recommendations should be added to that list: ● Improve accuracy of the electoral register ● Introduce measures to improve voter turnout The Electoral Commission should also take a lead role in implementing another recommendation (possibly in coordination with the Department of Education): ● Introduce relevant educational programmes in schools Where these recommendations require legislative change, the Electoral Commission should make recommendations for legislative change to the Oireachtas. Citizen initiatives
The Government were ambiguous in rejecting the following recommendations of the Constitutional Convention: ● Give citizens a say in the nomination process for President ● Introduce citizen­initiated referendums with adequate safeguards The Electoral Commission should be sufficiently independent that it can revisit both of these recommendations and hold a public consultation on the procedures by which they could manage such processes. Following that public consultation, the commission should be able to recommend legislation to the Oireachtas and present its recommendations, guided by the outcomes of public consultation, independently and publicly. 4 The Electoral Commission should be sufficiently empowered to be able to support the collection and validation of signatures to support of the nomination of a candidate for President and for citizen initiatives. Diaspora voting
The Constitutional Convention recommended extending voting rights in presidential elections to citizens outside of the state. The working group on Seanad reform also made detailed recommendations to enable citizens abroad to vote in Seanad elections. We point too to the recommendation of the Constitutional Convention for greater access to postal voting in Dáil elections as an issue affecting the voting rights of citizens abroad. The Electoral Commission should have full policy independence over these issues and be able to implement fully the recommendations of the Constitutional Convention and of the working group on Seanad reform. Constituency sizes
The Electoral Commission should have sufficient powers to independently implement the recommendation of the Constitutional Convention on constituency sizes: ● Set a minimum of 5­seats per constituency For this reason, the Electoral Commission should take over the responsibilities of the Constituency Commission and the Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee. In doing so, it should conduct its work independent of terms of references set by departmental government. We do not believe that this would contradict Article 16.2.4 of the constitution that, “The Oireachtas shall revise the constituencies [of the Dáil] at least once in every twelve years”, so long as the Electoral Commission is appropriately responsible to the Oireachtas and carries out this work on behalf of the Oireachtas. 5