INDEPENDENT SENATOR David Norris says he cannot demand a presidential nomination but could ask political parties to allow their councillors to back him in a free vote.
Mr Norris said the number of people who had signed up to websites supporting his bid to contest an election next year was “heading up now towards 20,000”.
Candidates need the support of four local authorities or 20 Oireachtas members to stand. Mr Norris said the Oireachtas committee on the Constitution report of 1998 on the presidency recommended a candidate could be nominated by 10,000 citizens.
“I’m going to have twice that very shortly. The parties all agreed to it but they never legislated for it, so it’s an empty promise, but I’m going to call in their assurances. I’m going to call their bluff,” he said. “You can’t demand a nomination but what I could ask them to do would be to release their councillors to take a free vote in each of the councils so that I could get a nomination that way. After all, Dana did it.”
Mr Norris is one of five prominent political figures who have expressed some interest in becoming candidates. The others are the Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley and his party colleague Senator Mary White, Labour Party president Michael D Higgins and the party’s former senior adviser Fergus Finlay.
“I’m the kind of person that if I see a ball coming in my direction I don’t stand there . . . I’ll pick up whatever instrument is to hand, be it a hockey stick, a hurley stick or a cricket bat and I’ll give it a wind, see if I can score. You have to take your opportunities,” Mr Norris added.
A number of others are not ruled themselves out, including former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness.
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