John Gormley

- Green Party would impose poster limits for future elections

Green Party Chairman and Director of Elections, John Gormley TD said today that the election poster campaign has got out of hand and needed to be properly regulated in the future. He promised that if the Green Party entered government they would introduce European style limits on political advertising.

Deputy Gormley said: “The amount of posters used during an election has got completely out of hand. In my own constituency of Dublin South East there is scarcely a pole left such was the onslaught yesterday morning and afternoon. There are an unprecedented number of posters, mostly, it has to be said, from Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the PDs – the parties who receive most from big business.

“Of course the smaller parties are then forced to compete with this, thus increasing the number of posters they use, leading to a type of postering madness that we are now witnessing. If the Green Party becomes part of the next Government we will ensure that the following measures are introduced:

1. A limit of 150 posters per candidate to be erected at official City Council sites, which are now used to advertise official events (these brackets on lampposts can be seen already in certain city centre locations). This is a practice in other European cities and would bring a degree of civility to election campaigns. The current free-for-all is unsustainable to say the least.
2. In relation to election literature, each party should have the opportunity to print a synopsis of their policies in one official booklet which would be sent to each household. This would, again, help to stop the proliferation of election leaflets going through people’s doors. Most of this election literature ends up in the Green bin in any case.
3. There must be much stricter election spending limits, not just at election time but between elections. It is very noticeable that the government Parties sent out very expensive newspapers over the weekend in the full knowledge that the election was just about to be called and that the spending limits would be imposed.

“Not only will the above measures even the electoral playing field – they would also spare the voter the onslaught of posters and leaflets and be far better for the environment,” Mr. Gormley concluded.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Press releases, Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.