THE National Youth
Council of Ireland (NYCI) is today making a final
call for young people in Inishowen to ensure they
are registered to vote before Wednesday’s deadline
for inclusion on the electoral register. The group
has highlighted that there are up to 696,543
eighteen to twenty nine year olds in Ireland
entitled to vote in the coming election.
Thousands have turned 18 and become eligible to vote
since 2019 local and European Elections.
James Doorley, NYCI deputy director explained: “We
are anxious to ensure that those who turned 18 since
the local and European elections in May 2019 are
included in the electoral register and will be in a
position to exercise their right to vote in the
upcoming general election. Any young person who is
18 years of age on or before February 8th 2020 next
is eligible for inclusion in the updated voters
list.
“We are also eager to ensure those young people who
may have registered between May and November 2019,
check they are eligible to vote in the election on
February 8th as even if they submitted forms during
this period they may only be eligible to vote on
February 15th 2020. We would encourage anyone who is
in doubt to go online and check the register,
www.checktheregister.ie or contact their local
city or county council,” continued Mr Doorley.
“If it appears you are not registered, you need to
download and fill in the RFA2 form which is
available on
www.checktheregister.ie , have it signed and
witnessed at a Garda Station. The completed forms
need to be returned by post or by hand to your local
city or county council by latest Wednesday’s January
22nd deadline, in order to make sure you will be
able to cast your ballot on February 8th, so time is
of the essence. However, there is still time, so we
would encourage people to make every effort to get
on the register,” added Mr Doorley.
“For almost every election and referendum we get
calls from young people who have missed the
registration deadline and are disappointed that they
cannot vote, so we urge young people to make sure
they are registered and not to leave it to the last
minute,” concluded Mr Doorley. |