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Electoral Commission recommends broadcast moratoriums should be removed from future referendums

The Electoral Commission made the recommendations in a report on the Family and Care referendums held in March.

THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION has recommended that the broadcast moratorium should be removed from future referendums.

It also called for the design of referendum ballot papers to be reviewed before the next referendum and for a proposed amendment to be published no later than 16 weeks before voters go to the polls.

The recommendations are included in a report from the Electoral Commission on the Family and Care referendums on 8 March.

The Electoral Commission was founded last February and is tasked with, among other things, explaining the subject matter of referendums and reviewing Dáil Éireann and European Parliament constituencies, as well as local electoral area boundaries.

The broadcast moratorium means radio and television broadcasters cannot report on elections or referendums from 2pm the day before polls open until the close of polls.

This does not apply to online media or social media.

These guidelines are issued by media regulator Coimisiún na Meán, but it has said recently that it will review the moratorium following a “clear” call from stakeholders for it to be removed in recent years.

The Electoral Commission in its report called the moratorium “anomalous and open to potential exploitation”, especially when “online media and social media is so prevalent”.

It recommended that the broadcast moratorium be removed from the guidelines for radio and television broadcasters before the next electoral event.

The Electoral Commission has also recommended that the publication of a proposed amendment be no later than 16 weeks before the proposed polling day.

It said this will allow for the Referendum Information Booklets to be designed, printed, and distributed in time.

The aim is for every household to receive this booklet between two and three weeks before polling day, and the Electoral Commission said 16 weeks is the minimum time required to allow for this.

It noted that the Family and Care referendums only have 13 weeks to design and deliver the booklets, and that this period included Christmas and New Year.

Delivery for March’s referendums began on 12 February and the scheduled An Post delivery was completed on 1 March, a week out from polling.

However, a further delivery took place up to 5 March, three days before the referendums.

“This is not an optimal timeframe in which to provide independent information on proposed constitutional change,” said the Electoral Commission.

Meanwhile, it’s been recommended that the ballot papers should be redesigned as the March ballot papers were “not sufficiently clear”.

The Electoral Commission said it was “difficult for voters to differentiate between ballot papers which looked almost identical in respect of their text and layout”.

It recommended that the overall design be reviewed and that a “simple prominent heading stating the subject matter of the proposal be included”.

It also called for a minimum of 60 days’ notice of polling day – the current minimum notice is 30 days.

For the March referendums, the Polling Day Order was signed 42 days before the designated polling day.

The Electoral Commission said this meant deliveries of the referendum booklet continued up to three days before the referendum and had the Polling Day Order been signed 30 days before the designated polling day, it would not have been possible to print and distribute the booklets in time.

It was also recommended that the work of the Electoral Commission should be funded from the Central Fund, which is the main accounting fund used by the Government.

Currently, an annual estimate is introduced by the Minister for Local Government and this is subject to controls and approvals by the Minister.

Provision was made for referendum expenditure of €3.5m in the 2024 budget, approved in 2023.

However, the Government deferred a patent referendum that had been due to take place last month, and had that referendum been held, a supplementary estimate would have been required.

The Electoral Commission said this “would have determined the nature and scope of the campaign” and that a “question now arises in relation to the appropriateness of the Executive controlling the resources”.

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    Mute John Kelly
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    Jul 15th 2024, 4:07 PM

    Gives us a break from the constant media and political chatter – go online if you want to continue with that stuff – but the moratorium does no harm and gives us a little space to think.

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    Mute William Slevin
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    Jul 15th 2024, 4:13 PM

    @John Kelly: your talking of a day where they don’t speak of that one thing but will speak of everything else political still…it literally makes no difference and is pointless.

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    Mute Sheila McNulty
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    Jul 15th 2024, 6:27 PM

    @William Slevin: great to get peace from all the this crap I’m sure people don’t need anymore politicians doing our heads in

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    Mute William Slevin
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    Jul 15th 2024, 7:00 PM

    @Sheila McNulty: Well I agree we could do with less news especially on the radio every hour on the hour bring back when it was just every three hours between 6 am to 9 pm…but one day makes no difference…with these 1 day black outs on a referendum or elections…also the watershed should be brought back…the graphic news on the radio everyday especially about murder, rape, pedophilia is crazy especially if kids end up hearing it if the radio is left on unsupervised…same as matt Cooper at half four in the day going Into more lengthy of such vile stuff…

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    Mute William Slevin
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    Jul 15th 2024, 3:57 PM

    Yea it makes no sense…especially in this day and age of the Internet.

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    Jul 15th 2024, 4:11 PM

    @William Slevin: The internet has several major problems. One massive one is it allows anonymous uneducated people like you think your important

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    Mute William Slevin
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    Jul 15th 2024, 4:14 PM

    @online paid operative, @ D. Peadar:@Ger Whelan:@Pat Hazzard: what’s got your pantys in a bunch now lol

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    Mute William Slevin
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    Jul 15th 2024, 4:16 PM

    Am i interfering with your job to spread misinformation and disinformation on thejournal.ie and your failing miserably at it?

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    Jul 15th 2024, 5:02 PM

    @William Slevin: So now I’m 3 people?. You need help lad. Only person spreading misinformation if you .

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    Mute William Slevin
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    Jul 15th 2024, 5:46 PM

    @online paid operative, @ D. Peadar:@Ger Whelan:@Pat Hazzard: OK wu Mao…

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    Mute h5kFhdYI
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    Jul 15th 2024, 9:35 PM

    @Ger Whelan: Educated people like you should know the difference between “your” and “you’re”.

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    Mute SV3tN8M4
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    Jul 15th 2024, 8:51 PM

    They “want to be funded from the Central Fund by Govt”, it’s quite clear for ordinary citizens that the Electoral Commission is just another arm of Govt, so no doubt Govt will find them directly from Central Funds. The make up of the Board & Management is mostly people who have direct experience & contact with the Houses of the Oireachtas & our Judiciary. In the last Referenda, one Board member toured the country & it was plain to see they were advocating for a Yes vote. There has been no actions taken by the Commission in relation to the Misinformation provided by Catherine Martin, Roderic O Gorman, Leo Varadkar & Micheal Martin during TV debates on the Referenda, as the AG leak showed afterwards. It’s a glorified Quango that dances to the tune of the Govt, no trust in it by the public.

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    Mute Patrick Kelly
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    Jul 15th 2024, 5:38 PM

    Who the hell is running this country. There are that many councils and commissions it’s not funny.

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