A row has broken out in the Green Party over a suggestion that voting in the Seanad election should be supervised to ensure that party councillors vote for designated Fianna Fáil candidates.
A number of councillors have told party officials they will resist any attempt to have their ballot papers inspected as part of the Seanad voting pact agreed with Fianna Fáil during the coalition negotiations.
There is also unease among councillors in other parties at reported attempts by party headquarters to supervise Seanad voting as part of a strategy designed to get favoured candidates elected.
A spokeswoman for the Oireachtas emphasised yesterday the secrecy of the ballot should prevail and that it was illegal for anybody to tamper with it.
The ballot papers will be posted out on Monday to 880 county councillors, 166 TDs and the 60 members of the Seanad. They have to be returned by noon on July 23rd.
Dublin Green Party councillor Bronwen Maher told The Irish Times last night she had been told that she would receive instructions from her party to vote for five or six named Fianna Fáil Seanad candidates.
"We were also told that the ballot papers would be inspected by a senior party official to make sure we voted the right way so that the Green Party could verify to Fianna Fáil that we had delivered on the deal," said Ms Maher.
"We got an explicit e-mail telling us about the procedure and a number of us have objected. I have told them that I am not going to do it."
Ms Maher said that when the Green Party members voted to go into government with Fianna Fáil they were told they would get two Seanad seats but they were not told what they would have to do to get them.
"We are in a coalition but we have to keep our own independence," she said.
