PD leader in 7 weeks
Nominations for candidates will close on March 5 and voting will take place by postal ballot with the winner to be announced on April 16, by which time the party will have been under the acting leadership of Mary Harney for about a year.
Ms Harney stood down from the post in September 2006 to concentrate on her responsibilities as Minister for Health but had to return to the helm in an acting capacity when her successor Michael McDowell lost his seat in last May’s general election. So far just two party members, Senators Fiona O’Malley and Ciaran Cannon, have declared their intention to contest the leadership and they were only able to put forward their names after a rule change agreed last Saturday.
Up to then only a member of the Dáil could be leader but the pool of candidates would have been reduced to two — Mary Harney and Noel Grealish — the only two survivors of the party’s disastrous general election outing.
The rule change enables senators, councillors and party members of at least two years’ standing to contest the position.
About 3,900 members are believed to be entitled to vote but a spokesman said last night a validation process would now take place to confirm eligibility. Votes are distributed throughout the membership on a college system with the parliamentary party holding 40% of the ballot, councillors 30% and the rank and file 30%. It will be the party’s first leadership contest in about 15 years as Michael McDowell took over the role unopposed. Before that, Mary Harney had held the post continuously since 1993.
Ms O’Malley, daughter of party founder Des O’Malley and TD for Dún Laoghaire until last May, has been most forthright in making known her leadership ambitions. Ciaran Cannon, a former councillor, ran unsuccessfully for the Galway East constituency in last year’s general elections.
