Readers Blog: Presidential election must take place in 2018

President Higgins declared in Australia this week that he believes himself “fit enough” to undertake a second presidential term but that he will publicly disclose next May, after his 77th birthday, if he intends to exercise his prerogative under Article 12.4 of the Constitution to become a candidate for a second term on his own nomination. 

A self-assessment of the personal fitness of the incumbent for a second term, however, is certainly not the only factor that defines the national interest with respect to the presidency.

According to Census 2016 the average age of our population is 37.4 years. When our national leaders travel nowadays to countries such as New Zealand, Austria and Canada they will observe that the practice of democracy revitalising itself is decisively achieved by citizens’ through the election of attractive young leaders with compelling credentials offering new ideas.

Article 12.2.1 provides that the President shall be elected by direct vote of the people. If a situation were to arise in 2018 whereby the right of President Higgins to nominate himself as a candidate to become president for a second term were to be conflated into a contrived and gerrymandered process whereby there is no election and no choice available to the electorate, the consequences would be that the 18-year-olds who voted in the 2011 presidential election would be denied the right to vote in another presidential election until they had reached the age of 32. An uncontested election would clearly frustrate the constitutional right of the electorate and not confer a mandate with clear moral legitimacy on the sole candidate.

It is therefore incumbent on our national leaders to ensure a presidential election will take place in 2018 and there will be candidates offered to the electorate who have sufficient prestige and attractiveness to adequately represent the zeitgeist of the era and preferences of the people.

Myles Duffy

Glenageary

Co Dublin