Monday, September 26, 2011

Nomination confusion

I'm slightly confused about this whole County/City Council nomination process for the Presidential Election. Today in Carlow motions to nominate David Norris and Dana Rosemary Scallon were tabled. From the reports it seems as though the Norris motion was tied 5-5 and then rejected by the chair using the casting vote. Then Dana's nomination was passed. So far, so good.

But here's where my confusion comes in. What would have happened if the chair had voted in favour of Norris? Would Dana's motion then have been voted upon? The constitution is very clear that each nominating body or oireachtas member can support only one candidacy. Would they have nominated the candidate whose motion received the most support? Or the first one that was passed? If the latter, then how is the order of hearing motions decided - is it first come, first served or are lots drawn?

I'm sure that somewhere in the County Manager's rule book all this is made clear but I haven't been able to find a clear answer on this. Anyone got any pointers?

2 comments:

  1. Motion nominating Dana would have been deemed to fall as nomination would have been used

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  2. I'm pretty sure the order of the resolutions on the order paper would be decided by when they were received. If the Norris motion had been passed, it would have been pointless to proceed with the Dana motion, as the law is clear that only the first nomination counts.

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