PAT COX yesterday secured the last of 20 signatures required from Fine Gael TDs and Senators to contest the party’s July 9th convention to select a candidate for the presidential election.
In order to go before the selection convention, aspiring candidates must be nominated by at least 20 members of the parliamentary party, five from the executive council and 30 local government representatives.
Mr Cox, who joined Fine Gael last week, said at Leinster House he would have the remaining signatures from executive members and councillors very shortly.
“I have had a warm welcome into the party and I feel really grateful to people for that. I am very confident that I am going to be definitively in the race.”
There was a “good geographical spread” of signatures from Dáil and Seanad, and from other levels of the party.
There has been some adverse comment in Fine Gael ranks on the fact that TDs, Senators, councillors and executive members are being permitted to nominate more than one person to go before the convention. However, the relevant rule 53 (iii) in the Fine Gael constitution and rules places no restriction on the number of persons who may be put forward by the same individual.
This is the first time the party’s electoral college system for presidential elections has been used.
Votes of TDs and Senators count for 70 per cent of the total poll; local representatives count for 20 per cent; and executive members comprise the remaining 10 per cent.
Where there is overlap between categories, members of the electoral college vote from the section of the college with the greater voting strength.
The parliamentary party comprises 76 TDs and 19 Senators. A total of 507 affiliated members of either county, city, borough or town councils or Údarás na Gaeltachta have a vote but two of them will vote in their capacity as members of the executive council.
There are 29 members of the executive council, but six of these, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, will vote as members of the parliamentary party. Kevin O’Higgins, legal adviser to the party, will act as returning officer.
In addition to Mr Cox, others seeking the nomination include MEPs Mairéad McGuinness and Gay Mitchell, and former MEP and minister of state Avril Doyle.
Party sources said Mr Mitchell was the front-runner at this stage but they cautioned there were still 2½ weeks to go until the convention at a Dublin hotel on July 9th.
Ms McGuinness is seen as being in second place but Mr Cox and Ms Doyle have only just entered the race and it may be too early to assess their chances.
A spokesman for Independent hopeful Niall O’Dowd said last night the Irish-American publisher was confident he would be able to secure the 20 signatures from members of the Oireachtas required to be a candidate in the election to Áras an Uachtaráin in the autumn.
