Electoral Commission’s mission creep

Sir, –The article on recent research commissioned by the Electoral Commission into the extent which voters believe in various “conspiracy theories” (News, May 6th) prompts a number of serious questions .

The questions which were put to respondents – on world government, alternative medicine, the manipulation of scientific data, etc – were somewhat left-field, to say the least.

What exactly did the commission intend to learn from them? And most importantly, what authority did the commission have to commission such research? Under the Electoral Reform Act 2022, the Electoral Commission has a remit to conduct research into “electoral policy and procedure” provided that it produces an annual research programme and lays this before each House of the Oireachtas. Its first such research programme covering the period 2024-26 has not been concluded and was published in draft form just six weeks ago. This draft contains no reference to research of the nature reported in your piece. On what basis was this research conducted? How did the Electoral Commission believe that questions on conspiracy theories were relevant to electoral policy and procedure?

It’s difficult to avoid a conclusion that this research was conducted in order to add weight to a view, which is now increasingly proffered at official level, that a large section of the electorate are uniformed rubes whose views on issues from social policy, to immigration, to the recent referendums, ought to be discounted and, if possible, corrected. What other reason can there be for a statutory agency to pay for such a daft piece of research?

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This continues an alarming pattern whereby the new (and supposedly non-partisan) Electoral Commission appears to be willing to significantly overstep its statutory authority and to cross the line into matters which are best left within the political sphere. – Yours, etc,

BARRY WALSH,

Dublin 3.