Opinion

Fears assembly election will not be up to international standards

As noted in the media on May 19, last year’s assembly elections, although for the most part well conducted, failed to come up to international standards.


Given little response from both the Electoral Office and the Electoral Commission, I fear this year’s may be similar. 

Firstly, party agents in the polling stations were able to collect data on individual voters. In most elections conducted under the guidelines of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), party agents are allowed to observe the voting process in the round but they are not allowed access to data recorded in regard to the presence of any individual voters.

Secondly, the count was at times suspect. Take, for example, Strangford. Hamilton (DUP), the beneficiary of a transfer from his eliminated party colleague Harvey, was elected at stage seven of the count with a surplus of 320 votes. This was distributed at stage 10, by which time, of the original 15 candidates, four had been elected and eight excluded and only three (all non-DUP) remained to contest the last two seats. So you might have expected many of these 320 to be non-transferable. But no – none of them were. 

As predicted, PR-STV counts (in both jurisdictions) can be capricious because some transfers are made according to the wishes of the relevant voters – and quite right too – but some are not. As in Strangford, votes with no further preferences are sometimes transferred in the same ratios as those which did have further preferences; so some votes are transferred without the relevant voters’ knowledge let alone consent. After many years campaigning against this quirk in the rules, a delegation went to see the then minister, George Howarth MP. He agreed there was cause for concern but suggested we should meet his chief electoral officer because, he said, he (the minister) didn’t really understand voting systems. So we did, but, said the CEO, he didn’t really understand voting systems.

Having campaigned on this issue for more than 20 years, it is disappointing to note that the current CEO could only suggest I should “pursue this matter further” with his successor, while the Electoral Commission, which initially promised to hold a meeting on this subject, has apparently lost interest.

PETER EMERSON


Director, the de Borda Institute


Belfast BT14

Republican constitution not in terminal decline

This coming year will see several significant centenaries including the first Irish republican to die on hunger strike Tomás Aghas on September 25 1917, four of the historic by-elections which paved the way for the establishment of the First All-Ireland Dáil Éireann in 1919. The year 1917 was a pivotal year in the revolutionary decade of 1913 to 1923. It was during this year the ground work was laid that would make tangible the swing of public support behind revolutionary Irish republicanism following the executions of the 1916 leaders. The threads of organisation were once more woven together following the executions and mass imprisonment of the previous year. 

For Irish republicans one of the most significant centenaries of this year is the centenary of the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis of October 25 and 26 1917. This was an historic event at which an overtly republican constitution was adopted. The historian Dr Brian Murphy points out: “The new Sinn Féin constitution adopted by the Convention on 25 and 26 October 1917 signalled the end of Griffith’s Sinn Féin. Although in 1916 Griffith managed to preserve the name of the organisation he had founded, it was given a new republican reality owing to the insistence of Brugha and grouping associated with Count Plunkett that it should reflect the values of those who had acted in 1916.”

This constitution is not a moribund historical relic but a living document which has lived on and continues to be upheld and defended by Republican Sinn Fein. In 1970 and again in 1986 when faithful Irish republicans walked out of Ard Fheiseanna where reformist elements attempted to dilute that constitution, they brought it with them intact ensuring not only continuity of organisation but also continuity of principle.

This year Republican Sinn Féin will be proudly marking the centenary of our republican constitution and continuing to work for the fulfilment of its aims: “To bring the Proclamation of the Republic, Easter 1916, into effective operation and to maintain and consolidate the government of the Republic, representative of the people of all Ireland, based on that Proclamation.”

DES DALTON


Uachtrán Republican Sinn Féin, Dublin

Defending Christian values

Thanks to a GAA pundit, Pat Spillane, we have the derogative term ‘puke football’ for what was back then a new style of Gaelic football. In politics I would venture to say that we have puke Catholic politicians. Sinn Féin have clearly sickened the DUP to the extent that their relationship was seriously damaged long before the present RHI crisis became full-blown. Yes, the DUP are culpable for their part in the breakdown in the partnership but their arrogance needs to be seen in the context of the DUP becoming weary of


Sinn Féin.

I believe that Sinn Féin and the DUP’s poor relationship are the result of them being poles apart on basic Christian principles. Issues such as abortion and so-called same-sex marriage have highlighted the stark difference between the two parties. The puke Catholic politicians of Sinn Féin are closer to the values of the atheistic French Revolution, as espoused by the maxims of ‘fraternity, liberty and equality,’ than to those time honoured Christian values that the DUP still hold dear.  I believe that it is these fundamental core differences between the two parties that has soured their working relationship over the past few years. Saying that, I will still be voting for the DUP because it is safe to say that when it comes to defending Christian values the DUP are still the party that every good Catholic voter should consider supporting.

SEAN TAGGART


Omagh, Co Tyrone

Obama’s legacy makes startling reading

Bimpe Archer is to be congratulated for her courage and tenacity in addressing the Obama propaganda myth, ‘Obama exists with only modest achievements’ (January 20).

The facts and figures, she quoted, released from the Bureau of Investigative journalism, which established that Obama had personally sanctioned 7,000 deaths from military drones during his two-term presidency.

His high stakes computer game ‘Killing Machine War’, enacted from his plush oval office, makes startling reading. This figure approximates to almost 70 people per month being murdered on his orders for eight long years.

Surely this elevates the definition of a modern ‘war criminal’ to a new category, given as many of them were found to be innocent victims of a brutal regime. Obama succeeded (supported by their proxy allies including Nato) in repeatedly desecrating his own constitution’s writ on human justice and fair play.

Consequently he has left a more dangerous world for the rest of us, including Donald Trump to deal with.

THOMAS CLARKE


Belfast BT15

Humans are always to blame

Manus McDaid (January 4) errs greatly in seeing ‘systems’ and ‘people’ (individuals) as distinct, with individuals somehow not responsible for flawed systems. An analogy – a telephone network or electricity supply ‘crashes’ –  human error is invariably to blame in faulty programming or technical incompetence. Did ‘cash-for-ash’ just somehow happen of its own will or volition with no human agency, Manus? There’s always a human being in the equation somewhere.

A CONVERY


Draperstown, Co Derry