Labour council leader explains differences in voting for Presidential nominee

JOE Leddin says Labour in Limerick “don’t believe in the business of a diktat”.

It comes after its three members voted in different ways in terms of Presidential nominees.

In order to get on the ballot for next month’s election, any would-be candidate would have needed the endorsement of four local authorities (or be nominated by at least 20 TDs or Senators).

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Ultimately, Limerick City and County Council as a whole chose not to nominate any candidate to contest the Presidential election, despite deciding to vote on four names to potentially give a nomination to.

Ultimately, neither of Limerick's Dr Donnacha MacGabhann or Gerben Uunk, or Dublin’s Maria Steen or Cork councillor Kieran McCarthy could command a majority of support.

It came due to a mix of the two biggest parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail opposing candidates and abstaining from the vote respectively.

Members of Labour, the third largest party on council, voted in various ways.

Cllr Leddin voted against all four candidates while Cllr Padraigh Reale abstained on each.

But Cllr Elena Secas voted in favour of Dr MacGabhann from Knockainey, and against the nomination of Ms Steen, who missed out on a place on the Presidential ticket by a whisker.

She didn't vote either way on the candidacy of Mr Uunk and Cllr McCarthy.

Cllr Leddin said: “We didn’t have a party whip. We are all mature, professional, like-minded independent thinkers. I, as party leader, wasn’t going to say to my colleagues: ‘look, we have to vote this way’. We don’t believe in the business of a diktat. Democracy is a core value.”