TWENTY LOCAL election candidates have quit Fianna Fáil following their failure to win a party nomination under rules ordered by Taoiseach Brian Cowen which have increased the control of party headquarters over the selections.
Minister of State John Moloney, who is responsible for relations between Fianna Fáil councillors and the Cabinet, defended the rules, saying the party cannot afford to continue to lose representation on local authorities.
The number of resignations over the past few months is in line with the experience of the 2004 election campaign when candidates were chosen by the traditional selection convention.
Candidates remain to be chosen in just three of the country’s 171 local election districts, though it is possible that a number of others will be added to the 500 already selected in coming weeks, party sources indicated last night. Speaking from Bulgaria where he is accompanying President Mary McAleese on a State visit, Mr Moloney said the party’s national executive has taken a “huge risk” with the selection by interview strategy.
However, the party’s delegates – who dislike the system because it reduces the powers enjoyed by local selection candidates – decided at the recent ardfheis that it should be reviewed after the local elections in June.
Mr Moloney said he had met with 24 of the party’s 31 council groups and acknowledged that annoyance exists. However, he pointed out that of the 86 seats the party lost in the last local election, “40 were handed away”.
The 2004 local elections were Fianna Fail’s worst ever result, and the party failed to win council seats in 16 local election wards – the first time in the State’s history that the party had failed to win representation in every ward.
His comments come in the wake of controversy in the Taoiseach’s home county of Offaly where three candidates have chosen to run as independents because they were not selected.