May 24 to be D-Day

May 24 to be D-Day

Grape Vine
Michael Duffy
michaelduffy@mayonews.ie

IT’S probably the last big decision Bertie Ahern will make as Taoiseach during the term of this Government. He is the man who has to decide what day of the week the majority of us will be forming an orderly queue at our local polling station.
On the face of it, it doesn’t seem that big a deal. Those of us who want a direct say in how our future is governed will make it our business to make sure we are on the electoral register and that we have our say on the day that counts.
However, when an election is as tight as this one nothing can be left to chance and so we have the debate as to what day of the week the election should take place on.
Up until recently, Friday, May 11 was the date that was touted but last week for the first time, the Taoiseach made it known that his preference is for a Thursday election because ‘What people do now is get out of the city on a Friday afternoon’.
The figures of voter turnout in the last two elections would seem to support the Taoiseach’s theory, with only a 63% turnout in 2002 on a Friday in comparison to a 68% turnout for a Thursday election in 1992.
John Bruton’s original plan back in 1997 when he called the first ever Friday election was to capture ‘the youth vote’ and one of the candidate’s in the field in Mayo, John O’Mahony, took this idea a step further this week by calling for another first - a Saturday vote.
The Fine Gael first time candidate rightly points out that Ireland has one of the youngest populations in the EU with 37% under the age of 25. He feels the thousands of Mayo students and workers living in other parts of the country would be able to vote at their leisure on a Saturday and this certainly makes sense as all of us could name a couple of our neighbours that we only see at the weekends.
The argument is effectively the flipside of what the Taoiseach is saying. Bertie wants to get the voters before they leave for the countryside, Johno wants to get them when they arrive back in the countryside.
And although there aren’t too many occasions when John O’Mahony doesn’t call the shots, on this occasion he will have to accept rank. The election will be on a Thursday and my few informed sources assure me that May 24 is the preferred option at present. The Dáil don’t return after Easter until April 24 and Bertie has told his parliamentary party to expect a ‘long run’.
Ironically, the Mayo candidate most likely to benefit from a ‘long run’ after Easter is John O’Mahony. On May 20, he will lead out his Mayo team against his former employers, Galway in the Connacht Championship. Should Mayo win handsomely, O’Mahony and the large numbers of Gaelic football fans among the electorate will go to the polling booths in buoyant mood. In a photo finish for the final seats, scenarios like the above have to come into play.