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Should citizens be able to initiate referendums?

Privacy & Cookies Statement

General

WhichCandidate is an independent website that aims to provide information to voters on the policy views of election candidates and political parties.

It is developed by researchers at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick, in cooperation with the web development company Careergro. WhichCandidate adheres to the website privacy policies of the University of Limerick. We fully respect an individual’s right to privacy and actively seek to preserve the privacy rights of those who share information with the us. Any personal information which is volunteered to us will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality. This statement is not deemed to be a contractual undertaking.

Processing of personal information on website

WhichCandidate does not collect any personal data about web visitors on this website. Information provided is used only in accordance with the purpose for which it has been provided and will only be retained for as long as required for the purpose. WhichCandidate will not retain any personal information about its web visitors on this website without permission save in cases where we are required by law to do so.

Processing of technical information on website

For technical reasons, we use session cookies on our website, which are stored on your hard disk for the duration of the link. We also use session cookies to retrace usage behaviour in anonymised form. The anonymised usage data is recorded, processed and used only in order to gear our website to users' needs. These session cookies are not used to collect any personal information about you. Session cookies are automatically deleted as soon as you leave our website or the dialog is ended. When using our website, you can decide whether you wish to accept or decline these cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, if session cookies are disabled on your browser, you may not be able to use certain features or sections of our website.

WhichCandidate uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous traffic data to the website to help us analyse how users use the site. These tools use cookies. They are used to collect anonymous data on user behaviour and standard Internet activity. The information stored in the cookie is transmitted to the analytics tools and then used to evaluate visitors' use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.

WhichCandidate will never (nor will enable Third Parties to) use these analytics tools to track or collect any personally identifiable data of visitors to the site. This data is completely anonymous. Users who disable cookies from their web browser will lose functionality.

Technical details in connection with visits to this website may be logged for accounting and auditing purposes (e.g. Computer IP number). We will not to disclose such technical information in respect of individual website visitors to any third party unless obliged to disclose such information by a rule of law.

It should be noted that technical details, which are not associated with any identifiable individual, do not constitute "personal data" for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1988 and Data Protection (Amendment) Act, 2003.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

Frequenty Asked Questions

What is WhichCandidate?

WhichCandidate is a ‘voting advice application’ that allows voters to compare their own policy views with those of the candidates standing for election.

It aims to inform voters about the policy positions of candidates and to help voters to make a more informed voting decision.

How does it work?

A set of relevant policy issues are selected by the research team in advance of the election. Election candidates are contacted to complete a questionnaire on these issues. Each participating candidate is given a public profile on the website, incorporating their answers to the questionnaire.

Voters who visit the website are asked the same set of questions, and their answers are compared with the answers of the candidates. A customised results page is then presented to each user, containing a ranking of candidates ordered by how closely their answers match.

How is the ranking calculated?

Rankings of candidates are based on the ‘percentage match’ with the user. This is the percentage of issues on which the candidate has the same position as the user, out of all the issues on which the user expressed an opinion.

For example: a user expresses an opinion on 10 issues, and on 5 of those issues the user’s position is the same as Candidate X. In this case, the percentage match between the user and Candidate X is 50%.

Some issues are more important to me than others. Can this be taken into account?

You first select the issues that are important to you, and you are then presented with questions related to those issues. You will only be matched with candidates on those issues. In addition, if there are any specific questions that you are not interested in, you can simply select 'no opinion' and they will be excluded from calculation.

Some candidates appear to be missing

We endeavoured to contact all declared candidates. Some candidates have declined to share their policy views with us and are not featured on the website. If you would like to see more candidates from your area on the website, please urge them to contact us and complete the survey.

If you are a candidate and were not contacted by us, please let us know.

Is it independent?

WhichCandidate is not associated with any political party or election candidate. It is run by researchers at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick. It is supported by funding from the Irish Research Council.

Who do I contact?

Any queries or feedback on WhichCandidate can be sent to Rory Costello at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick rory.costello@ul.ie