Politicians have too much control over the presidential nomination procedure, which needs a fundamental overhaul, writes Jim Duffy
While Mary McAleese is not the first president elected without a contest, she is the first elected in an unambiguous stitch-up. In past presidential elections, Independents spoke of running, or dropped broad hints that they wanted to, but with the exception of Patrick McCartan in 1945 (who was given an eventual Oireachtas entry), they backed off when the parties agreed on someone.
In 1997 the people and two councils-nominated candidates, Dana and Derek Nally, seized control of the presidential election process from the political elite. In 2004 the parties ruthlessly seized it back. Mary McAleese's comment that "no-one came forward" is inaccurate. Dana, Eamon Ryan, Michael D. Higgins and at least two Independents all tried. Their shafting was not in any way her fault. But it may well be one of the things her second term is remembered for.
One can understand from their point of view why Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour squeezed out candidates, though it is much more difficult to understand the Green's stance. For running against McAleese would have been a no-lose option for them. With a guaranteed 50 per cent coverage during the campaign in a two-horse race, it would be next to impossible not to get enough votes to qualify for State funding.
The Greens effectively turned down a free campaign and free publicity that would have won the party a higher profile and increased credibility with voters who had not voted Green, resulting in more Dáil seats. Opting out will probably go down in history as one of the great tactical blunders, "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" in Abraham Lincoln's memorable phrase.
One of the lessons of history is that the presidency has been at its weakest when it has been held by non-competitively elected office-holders.
Even President de Valera faced the blind fury of a Fianna Fáil Government in 1961 when he dared to refer an important Government Bill to the courts, and he had been elected. If you get the presidency by gift of the parties, they expect that, of course, you as president won't rock the boat. Ceárbhall Ó Dálaigh experienced the wrath of the National Coalition, which had co-nominated him, for rightly referring two controversial Bills to the courts.
Similarly, the scrupulously honest Paddy Hillery was put under severe pressure by Fianna Fáil, which had nominated him, uncontested, in 1976, to refuse a Dáil dissolution to Garret FitzGerald in January 1982.
In addition, the longer the period between presidential elections (there now will be no election between 1997 and 2011) the more the office is seen as belonging more to the political establishment and less to the people.
So what changes need to flow from the 2004 debacle? Bertie Ahern may not see it, going by his comments last Tuesday in the Dáil, but clearly the nomination procedure needs a fundamental overhaul. Otherwise fringe issues and organisations (for example, anti-immigrant groups, extreme Republicans, extremists on both sides of the abortion debate, etc.,) could use the election to get themselves coverage, as Adolf Hitler's participation in the 1932 German presidential election against President Paul Von Hindenburg showed.
The fact that most extremist groups could easily put together the numbers to fill petitions running into thousands shows why direct public petition is a very bad idea.
But clearly politicians have too much control. The numbers needed for an Oireachtas nomination should be reduced, perhaps to 12, still a significant barrier but not an insurmountable one. And those able to nominate by this route should include MEPs and perhaps even former presidents. Given party control over local councils, council nominations should be abolished. Instead, councillors individually in a national petition should be able to nominate someone with the right broadened to include urban district councillors also.
We could also go the Austrian route and require that if only one candidate is nominated, he must still go before the people in a plebescite. Or alternatively, if only one candidate is nominated, he should submit to a secret ballot of members of the Oireachtas, with a "no vote" by, say, one tenth meaning that nominations would have to be re-opened. To discourage race fixing, such candidates should either serve a restricted term (for example a half term) or be ineligible for re-election.
Finally, we need to shorten the presidential term. The idea of seven-year terms first occurred in November 1873 when France created the extra long term under a Royalist president, Patrice de McMahon, to give time to engineer a restoration of the monarchy. That never happened but France stuck with its extra-long seven-year term for presidents right down to 2000.
Weimar Germany copied the seven-year idea as did de Valera. With France and Germany having abandoned it, it is time we did the same.
To understand how ludicrously long it is, remember Paddy Hillery was longer in office than Margaret Thatcher. Mary McAleese will be longer in the park than Tony Blair in Downing Street and Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach, if both men retire according to plan. And every two-term president serves longer than the US's Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died during his fourth term as US president. Every two-term Irish president has run out of steam by about year eleven of their 14 years, with their last term ending as an anti climax.
That is one of the reasons why Mary Robinson did not take a second term, and why Seán T. O'Kelly, Éamon de Valera and Paddy Hillery took it with extreme reluctance. Even the hyper-active Mary McAleese will find it extremely difficult to keep up the pace until 2011. She and her successors should not be expected to.
Jim Duffy is a commentator on political affairs