Gerrymandering is still a problem

The recently published interim census figures have generated a certain furore – or at least a bit of a kerfuffle among politicians – as regards their significance for the current constituency boundaries.

It is quite clear from a cursory look at the figures that some present constituencies will be under-represented compared to the national average, and some over-represented, with areas like Dublin West actually being outside the constitutionally set limits.

The government has rushed to meet potential criticism by seeking the legal advice of the Attorney General as to whether or not a constitutional challenge to an election fought on the current boundaries would succeed.

But amidst all the discussion, there has been almost no attention whatever paid to the undemocratic way the boundaries are drawn, the real role of the so-called Independent Boundary Commission and the inequalities of political opportunity in different areas.

The terms of reference given to the Boundary Commission limit them to three-seat, four-seat and five-seat constituencies. So Donegal and Kerry, which have six seats each, are not allowed a single constituency but both counties are divided into two three-seaters.

Other counties – particularly hapless Leitrim – are gutted between two more populous neighbours.

The real scandal, though, is the gerrymander that lies at the heart of the present arrangement. The challenge of Sinn Féin in Meath (where on the old five-seat constituency base Joe Reilly was a certainty for a seat) and in Sligo-Leitrim (where Seán McManus was a real threat) was met by the time-honoured method of carving it all up.

The civil servants came to the commission with a ready-drafted plan, which has almost certainly cost Sinn Féin two seats in the next election. Meath is split into two three-seaters and a chunk of Westmeath had to be added to make that possible (to Fianna Fáil's Donie Cassidy's disadvantage). The obvious option of linking South Meath with North Dublin, – which are already socially and economically united – was rejected.

In Connacht, the Sinn Féin challenge was met by rejecting the option of keeping Sligo-Leitrim as it was and of drawing three new constituencies out of Roscommon-Galway (three seats), Galway East and South (four seats) and Galway West (four seats).

The establishment of an independent commission was supposed to stop this sort of thing, but obviously it hasn't.

And that brings us to the more important point of the inequality of the constituencies. The larger the constituency, the more democratic the representation. An independent or a small party candidate needs 18 per cent of the vote to get elected in a five-seater, but 25 per cent in a three-seater.

If five must be accepted as the workable maximum why can all constituencies not be made equal and all be five-seaters.

This is what has been done in the North, where the 18 constituencies each elect five to the Northern Assembly. It's fair, transparent and democratically equal – and that's probably why it hasn't been done down here.

Of course, county boundaries would not be respected in such circumstances, but they aren't anyway when it suits the establishment to rig the system, as the examples of Leitrim, Westmeath, Meath and others show.

A proper system would accept that the 26-county state is now a predominantly urban one and would centre each five-seater on the main urban nexus.

Each party would have an equal chance in each area, instead of small parties being mainly confined to the big constituencies only.

Of course, that is not the only undemocratic aspect of the administration of our elections. The electoral register has come in for some well-deserved criticism. But the practice being adopted to change this is even more undemocratic than the problem it is meant to address.

In a democratic system every effort will be made to ensure that every citizen entitled to vote is on the register. The burden should be on the state and the local authorities. What is being done now, however, is that if you're not in when the register checkers call, your name is struck off.

Young people in particular are especially vulnerable to this way of putting the register together. They tend to be out more, are less likely to actively search for a vote and may be more transient in their place of residence.

It would be easy to tie the vote in the register to the PPS number; but it is no accident that this is not being done. For these young voters and new voters are the very ones who cannot be trusted to vote for the existing establishment parties.

But how do you encourage an interest in the electoral process among young people when the state is straining at the leash to strike them off the register?

So, yes. Let's have a debate about the electoral boundaries and the register of electors, but let's make both processes fair, democratic, equal and transparent.

Eoin Ó Murchú is the Eagraí Polaitíochta of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. He is writing here in a personal capacity