FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny offered an olive branch to leading opponents last night in an effort to win the vote of confidence in his leadership tomorrow.
Mr Kenny said that if he won tomorrow’s vote nobody would be excluded from consideration from the front bench if they accepted the democratic will of the party. The move came after nine members of his front bench called on him to step down as leader.
As canvassing by the pro- and anti-Kenny sides intensified last night, there was speculation that if Mr Kenny lost the vote, former deputy leader Richard Bruton would face at least one challenger in the leadership election. Any such election would take weeks, possibly months, as the party has adopted a complex electoral system under which 65 per cent of the votes reside with the parliamentary party of TDs, Senators and MEPs, 25 per cent with party members and 10 per cent with local councillors.
Party chairman Padraic McCormack, who will chair the party meeting tomorrow, said a contested leadership election would take some time. “This is uncharted water and is completely new,” he said.
Mr Kenny surprised his front-bench opponents yesterday morning by delivering a strong 20-minute address during which he emphasised the full parliamentary party and not a small group at the top would decide whether he remained as leader.
Mr Kenny told his colleagues it would be the last meeting of the current front bench before a reshuffle next Monday, and he then left the meeting before any could speak.
Later, nine of the 18 remaining members of the front bench went public to say they no longer had confidence in Mr Kenny’s leadership.
Spokesman for the group Roscommon TD Denis Naughten said they had hoped Mr Kenny would agree to stand down as a contest would be extremely damaging for the party. As to the view now was the wrong time to ask Mr Kenny to stand down, he said: “There is no wrong time to make the right decision.”
With the opponents of Mr Kenny coming out into the open, canvassing became more intense with each side claiming it was comfortably ahead.
One of Mr Kenny’s opponents, Dublin South TD Olivia Mitchell said she was disappointed it had come to a contest. “He is a fighter. That’s the one thing I’ve discovered about Enda. He didn’t get to where he was today without being tough.”