Polish migrants’ rights organsation Forum Polonia is launching today (10.05.2024) an awareness-raising campaign to inform and encourage the Polish community to vote in the upcoming European Parliament elections. The organisation decided to run the campaign to fill in the gap left by civil society focusing mostly on registering migrants for the local elections. Nearly 300,000 migrants of voting age living in Ireland hold an EU passport and can transfer their voting rights for the EU election to Ireland.
Barnaba Dorda, Chair of Forum Polonia said ‘EU migrants and amongst them Polish migrants are untaped voting block when it comes to the European Parliament elections. As per the 2022 Census, 1 in 2 voting-age migrants living in Ireland hold an EU passport. However, only 1 in 4 EU migrants living in Ireland are registered to vote in Ireland. Sadly, there is a virtually non-existent effort from the governed, political parties, and the civil society to encourage EU migrants to vote on Irish EU election candidates.’
Migrants holding a passport from one of the 27 EU countries wishing to vote on Irish EU election candidates have till Monday 20th of May to register as voters.
The organisation plans an online campaign using videos and posters, in-person registration drives around Dublin, and webinars to reach the Polish community outside Dublin. Following the registration deadline the organisation will continue with the campaign to encourage Polish migrants to go out and vote on June 7th.
Teresa Buczkowska, Forum Polonia Secretary, and project coordinator said ‘The EU elections provide an important avenue for migrants to influence high-level politics beyond national elections. It is also important for migrants to participate in electing Irish representatives in the European Parliament as we live in Ireland, we pay taxes here and it is Irish politicians who influence our daily quality of life with their decisions. Our choices must be represented too.’
The campaign is made possible through the generous funding of the Polish Embassy in Ireland which also include ecouraging active participation in local election.
