Nominations by >4 local authorities for Presidential election

coylemj

According to RTE, Sean Gallagher has secured 'endorsements' from Roscommon, Mayo, Leitrim, Wexford and Cavan county councils, five in total. Let's assume they have been voted through as formal nominations in accordance with Article 12.4.2 of Bunreacht na hEireann.

Clearly he only needs four to get on the ballot paper so here is my query:

Could the last local authority who nominated him withdraw their (now redundant) nomination in order to nominate somebody else? I assume that the returning officer will accept the first four nominations and effectively disregard the fifth and any subsequent nominations for the same candidate.

There appears to be no provision to deal with this situation in the Presidential Elections Act 1993. It does cover the situation where the returning officer gets two nominations from the same council for two different candidates, in which situation the earlier nomination is accepted i.e. a council is not allowed a 'change of mind'.

Can the council who gave Sean Gallagher his fifth nomination now nominate someone else?

Comments welcome, here is the relevant section dealing with nominations by local authorities ....

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1993/act/28/section/16/enacted/en/html#sec16

ohnonotgmail

Once the council has handed the nomination paper to the presidential returning office i dont see any mechanism mentioned for withdrawing the nomination. If the council changes its mind before doing so then that would be different but would the council be bound by their vote to hand in the nomination paper or could they vote again to not nominate?

I probably should have read the act a bit more closely. Once a council has made a nomination the act prevents them from rescinding the nomination.

(2) A resolution under this section shall not be passed before the date of the making of the presidential election order in respect of the presidential election to which the resolution relates and, subject to sections 30 and 31 , such a resolution shall not be rescinded.

coylemj

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Once the council has handed the nomination paper to the presidential returning office i dont see any mechanism mentioned for withdrawing the nomination.

Correct. Could the returning officer reject the fifth nomination, send it back to the council and inform them that they were free to nominate someone else? Two reasons follow why this might not happen ....

A possible blocker is the provision in the Constitution which states that a council cannot nominate more than one person. There is also the slim possibility that a defect could be identified in one of the first four nominations, that would have the effect of activating the fifth nomination. So perhaps that is why the returning officer will hang on to it.

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

... would the council be bound by their vote to hand in the nomination paper or could they vote again to not nominate?

The chairman would be obliged to forward the first nomination that was voted for, I can't see that s/he would have any discretion to delay the process.

feargale

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Once the council has handed the nomination paper to the presidential returning office i dont see any mechanism mentioned for withdrawing the nomination. If the council changes its mind before doing so then that would be different but would the council be bound by their vote to hand in the nomination paper or could they vote again to not nominate?

As you correctly point out, the council can change its mind before the nomination paper is presented. This happened in 1966 when Eoin "Pope" O'Mahony was endorsed by North Tipperary who subsequently did a u-turn (probably under pressure from party HQs in Dublin - I don't know.) Just as you can change your mind while walking to the polling station, there is no discernible reason why a council cannot withdraw its endorsement and substitute another before anything reaches the returning officer.

ohnonotgmail

coylemj wrote: »

Correct. Could the returning officer reject the fifth nomination, send it back to the council and inform them that they were free to nominate someone else? Two reasons follow why this might not happen ....

A possible blocker is the provision in the Constitution which states that a council cannot nominate more than one person. There is also the slim possibility that a defect could be identified in one of the first four nominations, that would have the effect of activating the fifth nomination. So perhaps that is why the returning officer will hang on to it.

Under what mechanism can the returning officer reject a valid nomination?

coylemj wrote: »

The chairman would be obliged to forward the first nomination that was voted for, I can't see that s/he would have any discretion to delay the process.

I would have thought so as well but there might be something in council legislation that allows it.

coylemj

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Under what mechanism can the returning officer reject a valid nomination?

I was speculating as to where where the returning officer stood if there was a surplus (4+) of valid nomination papers for the same candidate. It appears to me that the returning officer cannot reject a nomination on that basis.

ohnonotgmail

I probably should have read the act a bit more clearly. Once a council made made a nomination the act prevents them from rescinding it.

(2) A resolution under this section shall not be passed before the date of the making of the presidential election order in respect of the presidential election to which the resolution relates and, subject to sections 30 and 31 , such a resolution shall not be rescinded.