WHEN Cllr Tom Morrissey jumped ship to the PDs last weekend there was much talk of him having just signed Fine Gael's "solemn pledge" on selection as a candidate in Dublin West.
Such a pledge is a requirement for candidates in most political parties but obviously carries no particular penalties for being broken. In FG it is a solemn open ritual, according to one deputy, whereby a candidate signs an undertaking to uphold the party and so forth in front of the chairman at the selection convention.
In FF, the pledge, signed by `all' those seeking nomination at a convention, has several sections - to conduct the campaign on the instructions of the director of elections, to uphold the aims and objectives of the party, to abide by organisation decisions and to resign the seat if so required that is, if the deputy changes parties - by a two-thirds decision of the national executive.
Labour has a similar pledge under which candidates, if elected to the Dail, undertake to sit, vote and act with the party, carry out the instructions of the parliamentary party, obey the whip and resign the seat if requested. DL has an informal one. The PDs don't have any.