Irish passport holders living in Northern Ireland could be allowed to vote down south within ‘five or six’ years, a leading journalist has claimed.

On Moncrieff today, the Belfast Telegraph’s John Laverty said it is an “anomaly” in the Republic that citizens living outside the jurisdiction are unable to vote in elections.

France, Germany, Canada, and Australia are some of the countries that allow their citizens to vote in domestic elections while living abroad.

Mr Laverty said over 500,000 Irish passport holders are living in Northern Ireland who cannot vote in the country they are citizens of.

“We’re talking for instance about the presidential elections,” he said.

“If you go back ten years ago when Martin McGuiness was one of the candidates, he was the only one who couldn’t vote for himself in the election because he was from Derry, across the border.

“It’s a strange anomaly that I think needs to be ironed out because so many other countries allow their citizens, their estranged or exiled citizens, the right to vote back home.”

Shared island

Mr Laverty said it is particularly strange considering the two jurisdictions share an island together.

“If I’m living in Strabane and want to nip across the Foyle River to Lifford to vote as an Irish citizen, I’m not allowed to,” he said.

“It’s strange because this is just a few hundred yards across the border.

“Ireland is one of the few countries in Europe which denies its passport holders the ability to vote from abroad.”

Michelle O'Neill, Palestinian Ambassador Wahba Abdalmajid and Mary Lou McDonald TD at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, 11/11/2023. Image: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Mr Laverty said Ireland is “moving in the direction” of allowing voting from outside the jurisdiction.

“I think it needs to move a lot quicker but I don’t think it’s going to happen under the current coalition Government,” he said.

“But I think it could well move that way in the next five or six years and the main reason for that is of course Sinn Féin.

“That is because of their emergence as the main power in Northern Ireland, the governing party in Ireland – they have more votes than any other party, including big unionist parties like the DUP.”

Unionists

Mr Lavert said “lots of unionists” have Irish passports.

“The likes of Ian Paisley [Jr] who is symbolic of unionism, Protestantism, has an Irish passport,” he said.

“A lot of unionist people who have an Irish passport, including Rangers fans who use an Irish passport to fly around Europe and watch their team play.

“They don’t have it for a love of Ireland, they do it for the convenience.”

The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998 and allowed people in Northern Ireland to hold both UK and Irish passports.

Main image: Vote being cast in a ballot box. Image: Picturebank / Alamy Stock Photo