This article is from page 4 of the 2013-12-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A DISGRUNTLED Fianna Fáil met last evening (Monday) to select its candidates for the Ennis Municipal Area of the Clare County Council election.
After a weekend of threats to cancel the convention, withdraw local party support and even the nominees to withdraw their names, the vote went ahead with members still not informed as to how many candidates would be selected on the night.
Even the chairman of the party in Clare and the local director of elections were kept in the dark, as they cast their vote.
“All the talk about openness and transparency in a new era for the party, with the grass roots having their say must have been all forgotten; the first time it is tested it fails,” said one annoyed paid-up party members.
“It is like the bad old days, a dictatorship of some kind, with the members being denied their say,” added another.
At the 11th hour Fianna Fáil headquarters rescinded a threat to divide the Ennis area selection into smaller areas, after a backlash from senior members of the party executive in Clare.
Just two and a half hours prior to the start of voting, the local members of the party were in the dark as to which of the nine candidates they could vote for and indeed how many.
There were also talks of the Comhairle Dáil Cheantair (CDC) – the most senior members of the party in Clare – withdrawing from the process, and the possibility of candidates withdrawing their names still looming.
Early last week, a meeting between representatives of the party nationally and officers of the CDC had agreed the strategy for the selection conventions. It was agreed four candidates would be selected on the night with one to be added later, and each of the 184 Clare members getting a vote.
However, hours after the close of nominations on Friday, a new directive was sent to the Clare officers from the party’s head quarters stating that just three candidates were to be selected from the nine nominees on the night, and the selection process would possibly be divided into sub regions.
An emergency meeting was called with the conventions nominees, who include current member of the county council, and an agreement was reached that if this directive were forced through they too would withdraw.
By yesterday afternoon negotiations were ongoing between Clare’s CDC and Fianna Fáil head office as to how the convention would proceed.
One angered member of the party told The Clare People , “The ‘one person one vote’ format introduced by the party was just a way to keep us fundraising. By the looks of things we are back to the bad old days when we don’t get a say.”
Disgruntled members of the CDC had also agreed to withdraw from the selection process if the 11th hour new format was forced upon the Clare delegates and party members.
The nine candidates contesting the convention were Cllr Tom McNamara, Cllr Pat Daly, Cllr Brian Meaney, former Cllr Bernard “Bomber” Hanrahan, former mayor of Ennis Joe Reidy, former Sinn Fein member Joe Corbett, Clare Colleran Molloy, Eoin Neylon and Alan Considine.
Voting in the Fianna Fáil Selection convention for the Ennis Municipal area was not completed at time of going to press. The result will be available on www.clarepeople.com with a full report in next week’s edition.