Citizens in convention need 'strong backing'

CITIZENS COULD find themselves manipulated by politicians in the forthcoming constitutional convention, it has been claimed.

The convention is due to meet at the end of this month or in early December. It will examine the Constitution and make recommendations to update it in relation to seven specific issues, including same-sex marriage and reducing the term of the President from seven to five years.

It will consist of 66 citizens chosen from the electoral register, 33 politicians and chairman Tom Arnold who was appointed by the Government last month.

The experience of people involved in similar conventions in other countries was aired at a round-table discussion hosted by UCD professor of politics David Farrell at the Royal Irish Academy yesterday.

Henk van der Kolk, academic director of the Dutch Burgerforum, said he feared that citizens, who might know nothing about the constitutional issues involved, would be manipulated by politicians well-trained in advocacy and politics.

The Dutch Burgerforum was a failed attempt to introduce a new electoral system to the Netherlands. Prof van der Kolk agreed that politicians should be included, but warned some citizens chosen at random might be no match for politicians.

“Some of these people just might not know anything,” he said. “You could imagine yourself as ordinary citizens sitting there with well-trained politicians discussing issues that they have been discussing for 10 to 20 years. One would be afraid that those 66 citizens couldn’t stand up to it.”

He recommended that the process of selecting the citizens involved be fully transparent to ensure they had the strongest possible voice. They also needed a strong chairman.

Erikur Bergmann, a member of the convention which drafted Iceland’s new constitution, shared concerns about the possible manipulation of the process. He said the Icelandic experience showed it was important for citizens to get the media and public engaged if they wanted to change things.

A draft constitution drawn up by 25 citizens, including Prof Bergmann, was supported in a referendum last month, though it still has to be ratified by the Icelandic parliament.

Ken Carthy from the University of British Columbia said an experiment in citizen democracy in his Canadian province failed because of lack of engagement with the political classes. Some 160 citizens were involved in a process to change its electoral system without the input of politicians. Their proposal for a single transferable vote system fell short of the 60 per cent needed to make the change.

Fintan O’Toole, Up the Republic: Weekend Review