Bill to include North in Presidential election

A unionist MP has told Irish citizens in the Six Counties to move south if they want to access the right to vote for an Irish President.

The comments came as a bill was submitted to the Dublin parliment to allow Irish citizens living in the north to vote in presidential elections.

Anyone born on the island of Ireland is automatically an Irish citizen, although those in the North currently have none of the democratic rights of those living on the other side of the border.

Peadar Tóibín, leader of Aontú, said his party had submitted the “39th Amendment of the Constitution (Voting Rights in Presidential Elections) Bill 2025” to the bills office in the Dáil.

Details of the bill were announced at the party’s Easter 1916 Commemoration at Arbour Hill in Dublin on Saturday (pictured, left), and Mr Tóibín said, if passed, would be “historic”.

He said that under the current law, more than one million Irish people living in the north of the island are not eligible to vote in the election.

“The Good Friday Agreement confirmed that people born in the north of Ireland have a right to be an Irish citizen,” he said.

“Indeed, currently nearly 700,000 people in the north of Ireland have exercised that right, are Irish citizens and hold an Irish passport.”

He added that Irish citizens living under British jurisdiction have a “right to stand in the election” to be the President of Ireland but under the current law, “the Irish state refuses them the right to vote”.

The Aontú leader said the “power to grant” Irish citizens the right to vote in presidential elections in Ireland was “not held by the London government”.

“It is not held by the Stormont Executive. It is in the gift of the people of this state and the Dáil,” he added.

“It is this government that is preventing the full Irish nation voting as one for the first time since 1918.”

Under current rules, in order to vote in a presidential election someone must be an Irish citizen and normally reside in the 26 Counties, bar a few exceptions including for Defence Forces personnel or diplomatic staff serving overseas.

In 2013 a constitutional convention recommended extending votes to citizens living outside of the state - a position officially supported by all of the political parties in the Dáil.

But hardline unionist MP Alex Easton (pictured, right) said that he is “strongly opposed” to the Dublin government offering the right to vote in Irish Presidential elections to those living in the north.

“If individuals wish to vote in Irish Presidential elections, then they should move to the Republic of Ireland and take up residency there. That is the proper and lawful route. This has nothing to do with the constitutional framework of Northern Ireland, and any attempt to impose such voting rights here would be an affront to our sovereignty and the principle of democratic consent.”

In September last year, former tánaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) Simon Coveney admitted he believed some politicians feared allowing citizens in the north to vote in presidential elections could result in a ‘Sinn Féin president’.

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