Getting on the ballot paper in Ireland is easy. At most elections, candidates can be nominated by a registered political party, or they can collect a fairly small number of signatures, or they can lodge a modest deposit of a couple of hundred euro with the returning officer.
The presidential election is different. There is a significant screening process that candidates must navigate to get to the starting block. Candidates must be over 35 and a citizen of Ireland, and then they must receive a nomination from 20 members of the Oireachtas, or secure a vote of nomination from four councils. Each member of the Oireachtas can only make one nomination and each council can only nominate one candidate. A sitting president can nominate themselves, but only once.
The presidency is the highest political office in Ireland. When they were designing the complex nomination process, it is likely that the framers of the Constitution wanted to ensure that voters would be able to choose from among those with significant track records in public life, deep knowledge and strong character. The election campaign itself is a test of political endurance that should put off all but the most experienced and distinguished citizens. This is not the election for newbies to test their views on the electorate − that is what local elections are for.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael largely controlled access to the presidential ballot until the 1990s. They were the only parties that always had at least 20 Oireachtas members and were guaranteed to be able to nominate a candidate. In the last decade, Sinn Féin has joined this group of parties with the Oireachtas numbers to nominate its own candidate. Importantly, small parties are not excluded from the presidential nomination process, but to achieve their goals, they must cooperate strategically. At the first presidential election in 1945, Labour and Clann na Talmhan coalesced and nominated Dr Patrick McCartan. In 1990, Labour nominated Mary Robinson, with the help of the Workers’ Party. And Catherine Connolly is on the ballot on October 24th because she has secured the support of a coalition of small left-leaning parties.
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The size of the Dáil increased to 172 at the last general election, and senators also have nomination powers. For obvious competition reasons, the parties only nominate one candidate and don’t use their full complement of votes which means that many nominations are not used.
This makes sense. Why would any rational party want to make their chance of winning more difficult?
In reality the potential pool of “floating” nominators is small. Sinn Féin is expected to nominate their candidate on September 20th and there is an outside chance that another candidate could yet emerge from the independents and small parties who remain undecided and uncommitted. The numbers are there and Maria Steen − a barrister and stay-at-home mother who campaigned against marriage equality and abortion − appears to be best placed to emerge, though her chances were narrowing on Friday. Party candidates have an advantage in the Oireachtas nomination process but independents are not wholly excluded, as Connolly has already demonstrated.
Most independents seek a nomination through the council route. This is a more complex route for two reasons. First, councils are made up, to a large extent, of councillors from the main political parties. In some cases, councillors have already been involved in consultation and selection processes to choose their presidential candidate. They have skin in the game. Not unreasonably, the leadership of parties with chosen candidates don’t want to increase their competition, so they often instruct party councillors not to cooperate with council votes on additional candidates. They do this by issuing directives or instructions to their councillors.
In their severest form, directives can ask councillors to vote against all candidates in nomination votes; a slightly softer option is a directive that asks councillors to abstain in any vote. There has been some criticism of parties that have issued these instructions. But parties contest elections to win. Of course, it is an open question whether councillors decide to follow the instruction coming from their party leaderships.
The second complexity of the council route lies in the skills of political organisation and persuasion needed to make it through. Putative candidates seeking a council nomination must contact councils and seek a hearing for their candidacy. There are few rules around this process and councils can make the arrangements to suit their own preferences. Several councils could hold their meetings on the same day and candidates must find ways of being present to make their pitch. Their pitch must also be convincing and polished, most especially so, if they are going to persuade party councillors to go against the instructions of their own parties. In the background, the would-be presidential candidates also have to lobby individual councillors and try and build a coalition of support and a sense of momentum.
Several candidates have emerged from the council route, especially in 2011 when Fianna Fáil didn’t have a candidate, and again in 2018 when neither Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael fielded a candidate. This year it is different: both parties have candidates, and Sinn Féin may also be in the running. Councillors from these parties will think twice before risking the ire of their leaders.
Is this democratic? The answer is yes. The procedures set out in the Constitution are being followed. Furthermore, the screening of presidential candidates is being conducted by politicians who themselves were elected. They are the chosen representatives of the people, elected in free and democratic elections, and quite recently as it so happens. There is little public appetite for reform of nomination routes. In 2015, voters were asked if they wanted to reduce the age threshold for presidential candidates from 35 to 21, the result was a resounding no.
Prof Theresa Reidy is a political scientist at University College Cork
