Monday May 10th

Euro Elections
Nominations process inhibits independent candidates

Knowing that the EU Elections were coming up on June 11th next, (31 days time) and that time was short I turned to the Internet for help. After all Ireland is being constantly touted by the Irish government as being on the leading edge of web technology and e-government development.

On Thursday morning last, May 6th , I went onto the government website www.irlgov.ie to research information on how I might apply to be nominated as an independent candidate for the forthcoming EU elections. I was linked to the informative www.oasis.gov.ie website which gave brief details of the nomination requirements. Following further searching I discovered that the returning officer for the EAST constituency (which stretches from Louth down to Wexford, excluding Dublin) was Maire Tehan, the county registrar in Trim County Meath.

I rang her office. Ms Tehan was not there. The person taking the call was quite courteous but completely unhelpful, as she said she knew nothing about the EU election arrangements. I asked her if this constituency had a website as I had just found out that the Dublin constituency had a website setup for the elections (www.dublincountyreturningofficer.com) . This woman, Pamela, had no knowledge of any site nor was there anyone, to her knowledge, except Maire Tehan who could help me with any info about the elections.

Maire Tehan rang me back after lunch. She confirmed that the East constituency is not served with a website (as Dublin is). I requested a copy of the nomination papers. She stated that she did not have them back from the printers yet (NOTE: this is TWO working days prior to the opening date of nominations for the elections to the top representative positions of MEP in Europe). I suggested that she forward me a copy of the nomination form by email as she had confirmed that she had a copy on computer.

After initially being reluctant to email me a copy, Ms. Tehan finally agreed to post a hard copy version of the nomination form and also to email me a copy. I then spent a period discussing with her the practical arrangements for enabling assenters to sign the nomination form, given that this constituency EAST stretches from Louth all the way down to Wexford. I pointed out that if I was standing in Dublin it would be reasonable for assenters to travel to a common location as the distances are more manageable (NOTE:- that the assenters could typically be engaged at work during the limited hours when the local authority offices are open and accessible. Ms. Tehan said she would have to go and find out answers to the queries I had raised.

It is also vital to point out that this difficulty only exists for the independent candidate. If one is a Party member, then one does not need to go through these time consuming hoops of chasing round the place getting people, ensuring they have valid identification on their person, that they can get away from work for a period during the day, and hope that the local authority have their details correctly updated on their files.

It’s only the independent, usually under-resourced person who, by design, is given the run around. This, I believe, is a Democratic deficit, as is the expectation on independent candidates outside of Dublin. Ms. Tehan reverted back to me later. From my discussions with her it became clear that the practicalities of independent candidates fulfilling the “Assenters” requirement had not been considered with any level of professional organisational thinking.

I am still unclear as to what the organisational and accountability structure is, whether it is the Returning officer, who works for the courts service, or the Franchise section within the Dept. of Environment, or is it the County Council officials in Louth and other counties. As an example of the, at best amateurish and muddy thinking, by whoever is responsible for the details of organising the EU elections, I have posed the reasonable scenario wherein a candidate has assenters from many of the counties in the constituency from Louth down to Wexford. If all the assenters have to come to one location to sign the one nomination form, then their voter register details won’t be available to that particular Local Authority.

On the other hand, as seems reasonable, if the assenters go individually to their local county offices and sign a form, then the 60 required names of assenters will end up on a number of different forms. When I asked Ms. Tehan if in this case she would accept a compendium of nomination documents she seemed to have difficulty with this. She reminded me that she, as returning officer, has the final say in whether an application is declared valid or not. I find this quite intimidating. As an independent candidate if I were to expend a lot of energy driving round the country to the various local authorities (unlike the Party candidates who have no such requirement) and having collected the 60 names I am quite nervous that Ms. Tehan or any other returning officer could declare my nomination as being invalid at such a late time as to prevent me from successfully filling in another nomination form to her satisfaction.

This morning (Mon May 10th) on the instruction of Ms. Tehan I visited the County Offices in Dundalk to lodge my nomination form, in order to enable assenters to sign it. At reception I asked to speak to Mary Murtagh , as I had been instructed to do. I was asked if I had an appointment. I replied that I did not but that I was here to address the EU election nomination process. The receptionist made some calls and then informed me that the County Council has nothing to do with this process and that I should go to the County Registrar for County Louth, Mairead Ahern. I was shocked to find that the County Council who are the designated office, spelt out in the nomination form explanatory details itself and widely circulated in very large notices in all the national newspapers at the weekend, had no idea that they were to be involved. Then an official came out and reiterated the Council position that they had no involvement in the nomination process.

If I had not previously been repeatedly exposed to incompetence, confusion and misinformation in dealing with legal and electoral issues, underpinned by a culture which presumes that the questioning member of the public must “de facto” be wrong, I would have given up and left. However, I had studied the available documents and rules in detail, so I ploughed on until I managed to get the official to read the official documents. She was most affable and I felt that she had been placed in a compromising position where she could not perform her job with competence, because of her lack of training and information.
Finally after reading the rules, she agreed to accept the nomination form and begin confirming assenters.

As should now be expected I met a problem with my very first assenter, Luke Martin. Luke has difficulties with literacy, and has already raised the fact that individuals such as himself feel very intimidated when faced by form filling unfriendly situations. Less than a year ago Luke moved into a new local authority home and is active with the newly established local resident’s association. Luke presented his personal identification to the satisfaction of the Council official and he gave details of his address. Then, apparently the council could not find him on the register of electors. The official felt that he may in fact be on the supplementary register.

The problem is that this supplementary register does not come into play until May 24th while the time limit for my nomination is next Monday, the 17th of May. So, this morning, Louth County Council would not accept Luke’s right to sign my nomination form. For Luke, this dismission of his dignity is yet another example of discrimination. I pointed out that Luke has been on the electors register already, that if he changed his address (by about a mile) and informed the council of this, that he should not be discommoded and left once again without a voice. So much for democracy and inclusion!

By this time I had consumed over an hour trying to get my nomination off the ground. If I am to meet this level of obstruction in every location I will never get the nomination complete. Why did I ever think that social inclusion and democracy included me, or any independent candidate.

I left the County offices in Dundalk without Luke’s assenting having been accepted. The official said she would check it out and get back to me. Later she rang. She said that she had contacted the Franchise Section in the Dept. of Environment seeking clarification and that she would ring me tomorrow. I asked for a contact in the dept. I rang this number this afternoon and my understanding is now that this register issue lies squarely with Louth County Council.

This negative experience of being obstructed by ill-thought out or ill-designed regulations which only inhibit independent candidates is in fact a parallel for the experience of fathers who act outside of the prescribed paradigm, when they actively father their children and seek simply to be treated with parity of esteem and equality. Just as I discovered in relation to this election process to date, Fathers face so many cultural, legal, educational, medical and administrative obstructions from a mindset which continues to propagate the illusion that men cannot parent as well as women and that “Mother knows best” and “Wait ‘til your father comes home”