The great digital debate

The first Digital Debate of #ge11 (General Election, 2011) goes live today. Organised by Newstalk and YouTube, listeners and users can pose questions to the main party leaders.
The top 10 questions, as voted for by the public will be sent to each leader who will upload their video response to the questions asked. A public vote on each response will decide which leader ‘wins’ the Digital Debate.
“All political parties have agreed to take part so voters will see the responses of the five party leaders to the issues voters believe are most important in this election. Enda Kenny, Micheal Martin, Eamonn Gilmore, Gerry Adams and John Gormley will all put their positions to the public. There was a phenomenal response to a similar Digital Debate held during the UK General election and we hope to repeat the success in Ireland,” says David Graham of YouTube.
“The public vote on leader’s answers will then be a strong indication of how ‘in touch’ with voters the leaders really are. We hope to enable as many voters as possible from all across Ireland to take part,” says said Frank Cronin, CEO Newstalk Radio.
Questions can be submitted between now and Tuesday February 15th in the following categories: Economy, Jobs, Health & Education, Political Reform and Other Issues. The leaders’ responses will be posted to the Newstalk YouTube Digital Debate Channel on Friday February 18th and the public vote on responses will run from February 18th to February 24th.