[E-voting] Independent election commission ...

[Ciaran Quinn]

Colm MacCarthaigh wrote:
> ... is in the Greens/FF programme for government;
>
> 	http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0613/greendocu.html
>
>   
Maybe it won't happen - from the Irish Times (via politis.ie):-

> Lenihan criticises plethora of State agencies and bodies
>
> The tendency to set up agencies and bodies at one remove from the 
> government is "an abdication of responsibility", Minister for Justice 
> Brian Lenihan said yesterday.
>
> [...]
>
> "That isn't a viable way of running a country. That is not a very 
> fashionable point of view, but we have gone down the road a little too 
> far - I am not talking about the Department of Justice, but right 
> across the range of government business - of setting up agencies and 
> bodies at one remove from the government to whom the government can 
> then abdicate responsibility for dealing with certain matters.
>
> "I subscribe to the old-fashioned point of view that we have a general 
> election. The purpose of it is to create a majority in the Dáil who 
> will then unite around a government and who are then accountable for 
> running the country and the people can get rid of you and replace you 
> with someone else if they don't like how you run the country.
>
> "This tendency to establish a lot of agencies and bodies at one remove 
> from the government is a form of abdication from governmental 
> responsibilities and I don't agree with it," he said.

I have to say I agree with him. For example, if an Electoral Commission 
is established and if the electoral register is still in a mess at the 
next election, is anyone actually responsible?

Ciaran