Lecturer seeks order to prevent holding of local polls

A Limerick lecturer is seeking a High Court injunction to restrain the holding of the local elections on June 11th. Mr Denis Riordan is also seeking an order restraining the use of voting system equipment for voting and vote counting at all elections and referendums.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Kelly listed the injunction application for mention today with a view to having it heard by a judge later this week.

The injunction is being sought by Mr Riordan, Clonconane, Redgate, Limerick, against the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Attorney General, and Ireland. Mr Riordan is claiming that the local elections cannot be legally held until the Oireachtas has enacted legislation to regulate the conduct of those elections.

In the absence of such legislation, the Oireachtas is acting in breach of Article 28 A.3 of the Constitution, he claims. That provision states: "Elections for members of such local authorities shall be held in accordance with law not later than the end of the fifth year after the year in which they were last held."

Mr Riordan is also seeking orders requiring the Minister for the Environment or the returning officer for the Southern constituency of the European Parliament elections to insert his name on the ballot paper for that constituency. He further wants orders directing his name be inserted on the ballot paper for the Limerick County Council Bruff electoral area.

When the matter was mentioned at the High Court yesterday, Mr Noel Whelan, for the State, said they would be opposing the application and would be contending the claims made were unsustainable. He said the matter was urgent as the process of printing ballot papers would begin this week as some papers had to be posted early to members of the Defence Forces.

Mr Justice Kelly agreed the matter was urgent and said he would list it for mention tomorrow with a view to securing a hearing date later this week.

In making his claim that the forthcoming local elections are unlawful, Mr Riordan claims Article 28.A.3 of the Constitutions requires that local authority elections be held "in accordance with law". The Oireachtas has not enacted any law to regulate the conduct of local elections, he contends.

He claims that the Oireachtas acted in excess of its powers in enacting Section 3 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2002 which purported to amend the Local Election Regulations 1995 (SI no 297 of 1995). The Oireachtas had no power to amend a Statutory Instrument (SI) and was violating the separation of powers.

In seeking the orders requiring the insertion of his name on the ballot papers for the European Parliament and local elections, Mr Riordan challenges the requirement to have 60 assentors and 15 assentors respectively for those elections and claims that requirement is unconstitutional. He claims such a nomination process is a form of "mini-election" not contemplated by the Constitution.

He says he was unable to secure 30 assentors for the last Dáil election and pleads that the requirement to have assentors is invidiously discriminatory as not all candidates were required to secure assentors.

Mr Riordan has taken a wide range of legal proceedings against the State in the past.