Immigrants join in the political jousting

Main parties field migrant candidates;

With June’s local elections drawing closer, political parties are showing more interest than ever in harnessing immigrants’ potential, as both candidates and voters. Between them, four parties – Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens – have already selected 16 immigrants to stand, while, less conspicuously, the battle for a share of foreign nationals’ votes is being fought with the aid of Polish websites, multilingual leaflets and full-time migrant organisers.

Whatever higher motives the parties may claim, the numbers show that being alive to the immigrant vote also makes strategic sense.

The flow of new arrivals may have slowed, but there remain hundreds of thousands of settled immigrants with a right to vote in local polls.

Some of the liveliest contests will be fought in areas with large concentrations of newcomers.

In Mulhuddart in north Dublin, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have each selected a Nigerian candidate in a constituency where another compatriot of theirs intends to stand as an Independent.

Adeola Ogunsina, a petrol station manager in Mulhuddart who joined Fine Gael four years ago, says he was drawn to the party’s support of enterprise and small businesses. And like many other immigrant candidates, he got involved through contact with other members, in his case the local TD Leo Varadkar.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0126/1232923365751.html

Fine Gael selects Polish candidate

FINE GAEL has selected a Polish woman to contest the next local elections in a west Cork town — with the party confident there are sufficient fellow nationals alone to elect her.

There are more than 200 Polish people eligible to vote in the Clonakilty Town Council elections next June.

If Joanne Crowley gets their full support, she would have enough votes to exceed the quota.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=77138-qqqx=1.asp

Vote drive for ethnic minorities

TENS of thousands of asylum seekers, migrant workers and foreign students are being urged to register their vote for the forthcoming 2009 local elections.

The voter registration drive, which kicks off this week, is aiming to get more than 50,000 people on the electoral register before the deadline.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/vote-drive-for-ethnic-minorities-1518407.html