Leader of Fine Gael Enda Kenny holds his final formal press conference at the party's headquarters in Dublin, on February 23, 2011.
(Leon Neal/AFP/Getty)
Voters in Ireland go to the polls today to decide who should lead a country wrenching from near-economic collapse. The fallout from the banking crisis there is driving unemployment to 13 percent and forcing thousands to flee. The country's statistics office says 100,000 people will emigrate over the next two years — that's two percent of the whole population. But in this election, those people who left get no say in who runs the country. Ireland is one of the few nations that does not give the to vote to citizens living abroad.
To make this point, a website site called BallotBox.ie is letting Irish expats vote in a kind of shadow election. The site was created by John Byrne and Brian Reynolds, who emigrated from Dublin last year.
John Byrne tells us what the site is trying to do and what would make him return home.
Comments [1]
We are in Canada at the moment wig our son he is 18 and in highschool here, we decided this as there is no future for this age group in Ireland for a long time..I left my job... We brought our savings because we felt it is safehere in the bank... We cannot work here as we have not got work visa so we are doing this for our children to give them a future that Ireland couldnt give because of greedy selfish people..my daughter is at home waiting for her visa to work so she has her vote at least...
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