Who? What? Where? When? Waterford’s Election explained
The SETU Arena for the Election 24 Count. Photo: Joe Evans
Taoiseach Simon Harris officially dissolved the Dáil after a meeting at Áras an Uachtaráin with President Michael D. Higgins on Friday November 8. The General Election is now scheduled to be held on November 29. Voting usually takes place from 7am to 10pm on the day of the vote. The deadline has now passed to apply for a postal ballot.
You can go to checktheregister.ie to register to vote, check whether you are registered or to update your address. The last date to register to vote in the general election is the date of this publication - Tuesday, November 12th. To register to vote online, all you need is your PPS number and Eircode.
There was a total of 171 individual polling stations in the recent local elections, with multiple stations in each location. Most local schools across Waterford will be open as polling stations on the 29th of November. Your polling card will tell you where to vote.
You need to bring one form of photo ID with you to vote such as a driver's license, passport, student identity card or similar proof of your identity.
There is a total of 14 candidates who are running in the upcoming General Election so far, you can read bios of all candidates on page 9. The 14 candidates are competing for just four seats in the Waterford constituency - they are currently held by Deputies David Cullinane, Marc Ó Cathasaigh, and Matt Shanahan, as well as Minister of State Mary Butler.
You can vote for as many candidates as you would like due to the way votes are cast in Ireland. Our electoral system is called Proportional Representation by Single Transferable Vote (PRSTV). Put simply, you vote in order of preference across multiple candidates and when your favourite candidate is eliminated, your vote is given to your second favourite candidate.
You can vote in order of preference, writing ‘1’ beside your favourite candidate, then ‘2’ beside your next favourite, ‘3’ beside your next favourite and so on for as far as you would like to vote. You do not need to vote for every candidate.
Votes will be counted at the county count centre, to be located at the Dome in South East Technical University this year. The usual venue in SETU’s main hall was pre-booked for these dates.
If you are an Irish citizen above 21 years of age you can either be selected as a candidate through a political party and be nominated as a candidate through the party, or you can run as an independent candidate. To run as an independent, you must present a nomination paper to the Waterford Returning Officer.
To earn your place on the ballot you must give the returning officer a Certificate of Party Affiliation, or statutory declarations signed by 30 people in Waterford, or a deposit of €500. The deadline to submit your nomination paper is by 12 noon on the 7th day the election has been formally called. So get signature collecting!
