General Election 2011

Tonight I should really be doing an Irish history essay, yet I find myself distracted by the General Election turnout. Yes, it would seem that somewhere between first and final year I actually developed a fascination with voter turnout, a subject which left me dozing in my seat or playing Tetris during the lectures devoted to it in first year.

I'm not going to lie, I don't see this election as particularly significant. It is an election like any other, a 'drastic' change form Fianna Fáil to Fine Gael and Labour, echoing the election of 1992. Of course I was only three years old in 1992 so I wouldn't be able to remember much. What I do remember however, is an odd sense of unease about John Bruton and I can vividly remember the Rainbow Coalition that wasn't.

This was the first General Election I was ever able to vote in, but I wasn't a first time voter. Yes, I actually bothered to vote in the European Elections in 2009. I think Model European Parliament instilled in me a belief that the person who represented me in Europe was as important as the person who represented me at home.

But then that's what elections are supposed to be about isn't it? About what you WANT, about who you WANT to represent you? Is this year's election about that? For some, yes, it would seem so. However for others it seems rather unlikely. For many, #GE11 is more about what they don't want.

I just hope that they don't live to regret seeking revenge on those they didn't want without considering who they were handing power to.