Date for local elections - Friday 5th June

The date for the local elections has been announced as Friday 5th June 2009. See press release below. The indications are that the Dublin South bye-election will be held on the same date.

Gormley announces European and Local Elections for Friday 5 June 2009
05/02/09

Mr. John Gormley T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, today (5 February 2009) announced that European and Local Elections will be held on Friday 5 June 2009. Polling hours will be from 7.00 am to 10.00 pm.

Announcing the date, Minister Gormley encouraged people to register to vote. The Minister reminded people who are eligible to vote, but are not yet registered, to do so at the earliest opportunity.

People may apply for entry in the supplement to the register of electors. To be included in the supplement and able to vote at the elections, a person must be 18 years of age or over, be ordinarily resident at the address at which they wish to be registered and not already registered as an elector at any other address. Application for entry in the supplement should be made to the County Council or City Council for the area where the applicant is resident so as to be received by the Council not later than Monday 18th May 2009.

Applications forms can be obtained from the relevant Council or can be downloaded from www.checktheregister.ie. Forms must be witnessed by a member of the Garda Síochana or, if the person cannot attend their local Garda Station, by an official of their County or City Council provided they state the reason why they were unable to attend a Garda station. If, because of a physical illness or physical disability, a person cannot attend either their local Garda Station or their County or City Council, their application form must be accompanied by a medical certificate.

Every person aged 18 years or over is entitled to be registered as a local government elector for the electoral area where they ordinarily reside: citizenship is not a requirement for voting at a local election. Persons who live in urban areas administered by Borough Councils or Town Councils are entitled to vote at elections for both the County Council and the Borough/Town Council.
Every person who is a citizen of Ireland or is ordinarily resident in the State and has reached the age of 18 years and is not subject to disqualification is eligible for election to a local authority.

Every Irish and other EU citizen living in Ireland aged 18 years or over and registered in the register of electors is entitled to vote at the European election. Irish citizens, and other EU citizens living in Ireland, and not subject to any disqualification can stand for election in any European constituency in the State. Candidates for the European election must be 21 years of age or over.

There are over 3 million local government and European electors on the current register. A new register of electors, which will apply at the elections, will come into force on 15 February 2009.
There are 4 European electoral constituencies and 258 local election constituencies.

The Minister will make the formal Orders for the European and local elections, setting the date and times for the polls, at a later stage.