The power to change the law is not in the hands of Westminster, its not in the hands of Stormont. Its in our hands, through constitutional change.

Peadar Tóibín TD is the leader of Aontu, he writes for Slugger about the issue of presidential voting rights for the North

On Wednesday the 22nd of October the Dáil passed an Aontú motion to provide three major changes. The first is to provide voting rights to Irish citizens in the north of Ireland. The second is to lower the threshold for nomination of candidates for the presidential elections and the third is to bring Áras an Uachtaráin and the office of the president under the remit of the Freedom of Information Act.

Shockingly Irish citizens in the north can stand in a presidential election, campaign in a general election, win a presidential election, be the president of Ireland, but can’t vote in a presidential election.

Currently 700,000 Irish people in the North are passport holders. Geographically they live on the island of Ireland. They are Irish citizens in law and the Good Friday Agreement, an international agreement, recognises them as such. Yet they are not allowed to vote in a presidential election. This is a two-tier citizenship. It is deeply undemocratic, and it is clearly against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

Imagine the joy that Irish citizens in the north of Ireland would experience, if for 1st time since 1918, they could democratically participate as equal Irish citizens in an all-Ireland election. This is not a zero-sum proposal. Affording Irish citizens, the right to vote in the north does not remove one right from our Unionist brothers and sisters.

The power to change the law is not in the hands of Westminster, its not in the hands of Stormont. Its in our hands, through constitutional change. For a referendum to be held there must be a Bill passed in the Dáil. Right now, the blockage to change is in Leinster House.

All political parties in the Dáil have at one time or another, stated that they support the right of Irish citizens in the north of Ireland to vote in president elections. Most opinion polls in the south show that a majority of decided voters support these voting rights in Irish presidential elections.

On foot of a previous Aontú bill in the Dáil seeking to provide these voting rights, Sinn Féin tabled a motion in Stormont calling for the same objective. A majority of MLAs voted in favour of extending the vote to all Irish citizens, north and south.

The proposal is not unusual. In many western countries, France, Poland etc, citizens of the state who are not resident in the legal jurisdiction, can still vote in presidential elections. Partition is not a block on this change happening.

So, why is it not happening? Some might say that it’s because of unionist opposition. I don’t think that’s the block in the Dáil. I believe that the party-interest of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that is the current blockage.

The leadership of these two parties see the addition of 700,000 northern voters to a presidential election as preventing them winning the office of the president in future. This is also the reason both parties are reluctant to push for Irish Unity. They see an additional 60 northern TDs in the Dáil as pushing government beyond their reach in future.

Firstly, it is undemocratic to deny people the right to vote because you may not like the result of an election. Secondly, to challenge the perceived advantage that 700,000 northern voters would give to SF, FF and FG need to organise on a 32-county basis or merge with northern parties. Aontú, the Green Party and PbP organise on an all-Ireland basis with far less resources. Thirdly, unionists would also have the right to vote. It may seem unrealistic now that large numbers of unionists would vote, but would they vote to block a SF candidate. Also surely this is the ultimate direction of travel if all of the talk of Irish unity means anything.

Aontú had previously introduced a Bill into the Dáil which would if enacted force a constitutional referendum to provide for this change. In the last Dáil Aontú introduced a Bill into the Dáil that would give speaking rights to northern MPs in the Dáil. There is nothing stopping northern MPs speaking in Oireachtas committees, other than a decision of TDs. It currently happens in the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement Committee.

There are many steps that can be taken now to practically give citizens in the north a voice in the Dáil. We need to integrate the political systems north and south so as we are properly listening to each other. We need to plan together, fund together and deliver infrastructure and services together. This would make them much more efficient to deliver and would improve standards for everyone living in Ireland.

The passing of the Aontú motion now means that there is a democratic Dáil mandate and an onus on the government to deliver on the necessary constitutional and legislative changes. We will do out best to make sure it happens.