Legal threat to Sligo-Leitrim Fine Gael selection process

Supporters of Fine Gael TD John Perry are threatening a court injunction against the party in a row over the upcoming selection convention for Sligo-Leitrim.

Fine Gael sources confirmed party headquarters received a solicitor’s letter in a dispute over the eligibility of a significant number of Mr Perry’s supporters to vote in the convention next month.

Members of a number of branches in Co Sligo were excluded from voting as they have not been registered paid-up members for two years, as required by the party constitution. It is believed a number of branches and individuals who were registered for 2015 were not registered for last year and were therefore excluded from participation in the convention.

“Our rules are very clear,” said one senior party source. “Branches and individual members have to be registered for two years in order to be eligible to vote at a selection convention. If we allowed Sligo to breach the rules, the selection process around the entire country would be thrown into chaos.” He pointed to the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in the UK as an example of what could happen if no rules governed the period of time people had to be a party member.

Exhausted

He said all of the internal appeal procedures had been exhausted and the decision to exclude the Sligo branches had been upheld by the executive council of the party. “Our legal advice is quite clear and we do not expect the courts to intervene in a process in which the rules of the party have been followed to the letter.”

Mr Perry is under pressure because the Fine Gael election strategy committee is recommending one candidate be selected by Sligo delegates and one by Leitrim delegates. The Sligo end of the constituency has two Fine Gael TDs, Mr Perry, who lives in Ballymore, and Tony McLoughlin, from Sligo town. In the Leitrim end, the contest for nomination is between Senator Michael Comiskey and Gerry Reynolds, who lost his Dáil seat in 2002.