Sir, - The confusion surrounding the selection of the next president demonstrates three things: Mary Robinson has changed the role and the public perception of the presidency, hopefully for ever; the political parties have not, in the course of seven years, made a realistic adjustment to this fact (they probably don't want to); and the present constitutional arrangements for nominating candidates are entirely inadequate to the new concept of the presidency.
If the president is above party politics and represents all the people, it is now ludicrous to have the nomination process locked into the hands of the politicians. One may not want to support Dana or the Group who put her forward, but her emerging campaign shows clearly that the current nomination system is unfair. Apart from the Catholic Right, there may well be other segments of society who feel they do not have access to the "non-political" presidency. Who, for example, speaks for the 250,000 unemployed? To paraphrase Mary Robinson's campaign slogan: "You have a voice, but who will make it heard?" Why don't we have an Unemployed Candidate?
What next? We have to have an election, because the people want to give their president a mandate. Despite his great political stature, John Hume should not be imposed, either because he would like to be president or because Fianna Fail believes Albert Reynolds would not be elected. Also, Mr. Hume would always be seen as the leading representative of northern nationalism, not as a symbol of reconciliation on the whole island. Fine Gael has two potential candidates and Labour has not yet apparently, found a star.
For this election, the party whips should be removed, so that our present TDs, Senators and local councillors can be free to nominate candidates such as John Hume, Dana and any other viable contender as well as their own party's choice. We would then have four or five credible candidates and the people could freely choose. Emergency legislation should provide equal public funding for each candidate and one could only hope that Patricia McKenna would not oppose this exercise in democracy. By the time of the next election in 2004, an appropriate electoral system should be in place. Is this asking for too much democracy? - Yours, etc.,
Jerry Crowley,
Fontenoy St., Dublin 7.