Who or how is transfer policy dictated?

dulpit

Hey,

I'm living in Cork North West ward, and I have noticed that both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are running multiple candidates (I'm sure FG/etc are too, but their posters aren't up yet). What I thought was interesting was that while Fianna Fáil seem to have their candidates have posters up all over the place, Sinn Féin clearly have area for their candidates, there's no real overlap. The other thing I noticed was that FF's posters say continue your preference for whoever while SF's tell you who to give a number 2 and 3 too.

The Sinn Féin transfer policy strikes me as a little odd too. The posters seem to indicate the following:

• Kenneth Collins's posters have him 1, John Stanton 2 and Thomas Gould 3.
• Thomas Gould's posters have him 1, John Stanton 2 and Kenneth Collins 3.
• John Stanton's posters have him 1, Kenneth Collins 2 and Thomas Gould 3.

Seems a little unfair on Thomas Gould to be listed as option 3 for the 2 other candidates. How would this have been decided? Does anyone have any insight here?

blanch152

dulpit wrote: »

Hey,

I'm living in Cork North West ward, and I have noticed that both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are running multiple candidates (I'm sure FG/etc are too, but their posters aren't up yet). What I thought was interesting was that while Fianna Fáil seem to have their candidates have posters up all over the place, Sinn Féin clearly have area for their candidates, there's no real overlap. The other thing I noticed was that FF's posters say continue your preference for whoever while SF's tell you who to give a number 2 and 3 too.

The Sinn Féin transfer policy strikes me as a little odd too. The posters seem to indicate the following:

• Kenneth Collins's posters have him 1, John Stanton 2 and Thomas Gould 3.
• Thomas Gould's posters have him 1, John Stanton 2 and Kenneth Collins 3.
• John Stanton's posters have him 1, Kenneth Collins 2 and Thomas Gould 3.

Seems a little unfair on Thomas Gould to be listed as option 3 for the 2 other candidates. How would this have been decided? Does anyone have any insight here?

It would be an internal Sinn Fein matter to decide on that. Parties try to manipulate the electorate to get maximum people elected.

I'm in Blanchardstown (Castleknock ward) and I have noticed that FG are running two candidates and appear to have split the area between them with one candidate's posters mostly in Blanchardstown and the other in Castleknock. I don't think they are the only ones doing it but we have new wards with new boundaries and councillors moving wards as a result so it is a bit hard to figure out yet whether different candidates and parties are doing the same, I will have to get the full list. The FG arrangement was blatantly obvious as I drove into the city centre yesterday.

The thing is, they will all have talleymen at the counts who will be able to tell from the different boxes how well their strategy worked out.

Danzy

dulpit wrote: »

Hey,

I'm living in Cork North West ward, and I have noticed that both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are running multiple candidates (I'm sure FG/etc are too, but their posters aren't up yet). What I thought was interesting was that while Fianna Fáil seem to have their candidates have posters up all over the place, Sinn Féin clearly have area for their candidates, there's no real overlap. The other thing I noticed was that FF's posters say continue your preference for whoever while SF's tell you who to give a number 2 and 3 too.

The Sinn Féin transfer policy strikes me as a little odd too. The posters seem to indicate the following:

• Kenneth Collins's posters have him 1, John Stanton 2 and Thomas Gould 3.
• Thomas Gould's posters have him 1, John Stanton 2 and Kenneth Collins 3.
• John Stanton's posters have him 1, Kenneth Collins 2 and Thomas Gould 3.

Seems a little unfair on Thomas Gould to be listed as option 3 for the 2 other candidates. How would this have been decided? Does anyone have any insight here?

They feel that Gould is fine on his own, Collins as well but that Stanton needs help from all areas to get over the line.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Danzy wrote: »

They feel that Gould is fine on his own, Collins as well but that Stanton needs help from all areas to get over the line.

It could be this.

It could also be an internal party matter where someone has decided to throw Gould under the bus but its most likely an attempt to help Stanton who hasn't been elected previously.

Danzy

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

It could be this.

It could also be an internal party matter where someone has decided to throw Gould under the bus but its most likely an attempt to help Stanton who hasn't been elected previously.

Gould got about 27% of the vote in the last locals, he is more known and popular since.

Brussels Sprout

Just to throw another possibility into the mix. Perhaps Gould's posters are in areas that have a higher population than the other two. In fact I have only seen Gould's in the city centre so he'd probably benefit from a higher population density. This, like all of a the Cork wards, is brand new and much expanded so perhaps the other two have more of the lower populated rural areas that take up most of the constituency.

L1011

I'm now seeing some perverse ones locally to me

Maynooth LEA, basically Maynooth and Kilcock only. 5 seats

FG running two candidates - one based in Kilcock, one a sitting Cllr in Maynooth. All signs in Maynooth are vote 1 for the Kilcock candidate (who has virtually no profile), 2 Maynooth candidate (who has surname recognition due to his TD father).

Canvassers in Maynooth are however requesting 1 for the Maynooth candidate only and went on to plugging Mairead McGuinness instead of requesting transfers.

Leixlip LEA, just Leixlip town, 3 seats. FF running two, one not mentioning the other at all and instead mentioning one of the two TDs in the constituency instead.



Based on that, I suspect "incoherently" is the answer to the question in the title!

Peregrinus

"Incoherently' is correct, and this is because party discipline is not absolute. Very often there is tension between head office and the local party, and within the local party particular campaign workers may have a loyalty to one particular candidate over another. So what head office wants, what is popular in the local party and what individual campaigners would like to do can easily be three different things. Hence what gets printed on the posters may not alway be reflected in what is said on the doorsteps.