Local Elections June 2009

starbelgrade

If I wanted to run for the local elections this year, would I be eligible to do so as an independant & if so, how would I go about doing it & what are the requirements / criteria?

Agent Smith

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Information

If you wish to be nominated to stand for election to a local authority in Ireland, there is a specific week in which you must be nominated. This week takes place 4 weeks before the polling day. Local elections recently took place in Ireland on 11th June, 2004. The next date for local elections will be in 2009.

You may nominate yourself or be nominated by a local government elector registered in the area. You may be nominated to stand in more than one area.

If you are a member of a political party, you must submit a Certificate of Party Affiliation with your nomination form.

If you are an independent candidate, you must have your nomination paper signed by 15 "assenters". These are persons registered to vote in the local authority - they cannot include yourself or the person who nominated you.
Rules

You are eligible to be elected to a local authority if you are ordinarily resident in Ireland and you are at least 18 years old. You do not have to be an Irish citizen.

Certain people are disqualified from becoming members of a local authority:

* A member of the European Commission, Parliament or Courts
* A Minister of the Government or a Minister of State
* An Ceann Comhairle (the Chairman of the Dáil) and an Cathaoirleach (the Chairman of the Seanad)
* Members of an Garda Siochana (Irish police force) or a full-time member of the Irish defence forces
* Judges
* The Comptroller and Auditor General
* Civil servants
* People who have been imprisoned for a term longer than 6 months
* People who have failed pay local authority charges
* People who have failed to comply with an order of a court to pay money due to a local authority
* People who have been convicted of fraud or dishonest dealings, corrupt practice or acting while disqualified.

How to apply

Nomination forms are available at your local City or County Manager's office. Once you have completed your nomination form, you must then return the nomination form to the City or County Manager's office. You may include party affiliation on the nomination paper. If you have no party affiliation, you may be described as 'Non-Party' or you may leave this space blank. You must either include a Certificate of Party Affiliation or the signatures of 15 assenters (excluding the candidate and any proposer) registered in the local electoral area concerned.

To assent to your nomination, your assenters must attend at your local authority office (not necessarily all at the same time). A local authority official will examine your assenters' photographic identification (any form of identification with a photograph will do) and will check that they are on the Register of Electors. The assenters will then sign your nomination paper in the presence of the local authority official.

The local authority official will keep a record of your assenters' numbers on the Register of Electors, the form of identification they produced and the time and date of their signature on your nomination paper. An assenter can only sign the nomination form of one candidate.

The returning officer must rule on whether your nomination paper is valid within one hour of it's presentation. Your nomination paper may be ruled invalid if:

* the nomination of a non-party candidate is not assented to in the proper manner, and
* the nomination paper of any candidate is not properly made out or signed.

The returning officer is required to object to the description of any candidate which is (in the returning officer's opinion), unnecessarily long or insufficient to identify the candidate. The candidate or the returning officers may amend the paticulars shown on the nomination paper.



The tl;dr version

you need to get someone to nominate you, then get 15 people to Agree to your Nomination.

starbelgrade

Thanks a million for your reply - I really appreciate you taking the time to pass on the information.