I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Electoral Act of 1992 to enable candidates for election who are not members of a political party to identify themselves as independent on a ballot paper and to provide for related matters.
This is a very short Bill. Essentially, it seeks to allow people who are contesting elections as independents, to declare themselves as independents on the ballot paper. Currently, one is only allowed to put "non-party" or leave the ballot paper blank.
Great efforts are made to ensure that people get their names correct on the ballot paper. We can all remember the late Seán "Dublin Bay Rockall" Loftus as probably being the most celebrated example of that. In addition, photographs are included on the ballot paper for people who may have literacy problems. The law is very specific about that.
There have been Independent Members of the Dáil since the foundation of the State. Independents are a fact of life at local government level.
The very thing that defines one on one's election material is something one is not allowed to include on the ballot paper. I seek a change to the law to allow that to happen.
