A bus carrying a poster of a candidate runs in Dublin, Ireland, April 24, 2019. Candidates for the European Parliament and the local councils or governments were allowed to kick off their running campaigns on Wednesday, local media said. (Xinhua)
DUBLIN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Candidates in Ireland who are going to compete for the seats in the European Parliament as well as the seats in the local councils or governments were allowed to kick off their campaigns starting on Wednesday, local media said.
A total of 59 candidates either backed by different political parties or contesting on their own will compete for the 13 seats for Ireland in the European Parliament in the coming election which will be held towards the end of the next month, according to local media reports.
In the 2014 election, Ireland won 11 seats in the European Parliament. However, two extra seats will be allocated to Ireland in the coming European Parliament election, reported local media RTE.
Candidates from Ireland who win the European Parliament election will join members elected from other member states of the European Union (EU) to form larger parties within the parliament.
The elected members of the European Parliament will represent the interests of their parties rather than their countries during their five-year term.
Currently there are more than 700 members sitting in the European Parliament. Their main task is to jointly decide with the European Council on laws that affect the lives of the EU's citizens.
The European Parliament also has a say on the EU budget and a right to check if the money is spent in the way as it has been approved by the parliament.
Meanwhile, a total of 949 seats in the local councils across Ireland will also be available for contestants in the coming local elections which will be held in May.
In Ireland, the main task of the members elected to local councils is to formulate policies for the areas they represent. They are not involved in implementing the policies.
The term of a council is five years. In theory, a councilor is a part-time role. Each of the Irish local councilors gets an annual payment of 17,000 euros (19,000 U.S. dollars) which is subject to tax. They also get annual expenses to cover their travel and communication costs.
Currently only 20 percent of the local councilors in Ireland are women, according to the local media reports. The Irish government has recently announced a funding scheme to encourage political parties to increase the proportion of female candidates in the coming local elections.
