12 February 2016
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
The streets are covered with election posters, and many people are not happy about it, least of all the independent candidates.
Diarmuid O Cadhla is founder of the Peoples Convention or CPPC. It’s office is on Douglas Street, Cork City
Diarmaid Ó Cadhla is the head of the “Peoples Convention” or CPPC.
It’s a “movement”, and not a registered political party, so its candidates appear as “Non Party” on ballot papers.
Diarmaid Ó Cadhla says he has had to spend several thousand Euro on posters, and volunteers have put in long hours hanging them up, “and we will have to take them all down again. It is a huge waste of time, money and energy that should be put to better use.”
Diarmaid Ó Cadhla says the electoral process favours Political Party candidates, which received nearly €70 million in state funding since 2011.
“The injustice became clear when I realised that not only do I pay for my own posters, but I also pay for those of the Party candidates. The result is the madness we see during elections, posters hang everywhere, excess is encouraged.”
Diarmaid Ó Cadhla proposes the following solution
- Limiting the number of posters for each candidate, I suggest a maximum of 300.
- Standardise the posters, I suggest 4’ by 2’ corriboard.
- Allow every candidate to re-claim the cost of these posters – once they have been removed after the voting.
“This whole area needing debate and I would welcome hearing other views on the matter” he concluded.
