Senator David Norris’s hopes of a presidential nomination may have taken a dent when the only council to have nominated him now say they want to hear from the other prospective candidates.
Fingal County Council voted to nominate Senator Norris last May. However, for this to be official, another vote must be taken when the presidential election order is signed, probably in September.
At their July meeting Fingal councillors agreed to requests from Mary Davis and Gary Smiley to address them as. The Mayor Gerry Maguire is to consider convening a special meeting in September so that other prospective candidates can be invited to make their pitch.
Somewhat surprisingly there were no objections from those who had supported Senator Norris. In the interests of democracy I think all prospective candidates should be invited to address the councillors before a final decison is made.
Senator Norris was nominated in May before his reminisances of the golden days of ancient Greece came back to haunt him. There is no guarantee that those who supported him before will do so again in September bearing in mind that the larger parties will have their campaigns well underway by then. Only 14 of the 24 councillors voted for Senator Norris in May and some of those may have lost their enthusiasm for him by now. Others may of course change their minds when they hear from the rest of the candidates.
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