On 24 October, voters in the Republic of Ireland go to the polls to elect their next Head of State. This time, in an orderly and by now well-established process, there were only two candidates, both women. This meant the production of another outstanding Irish female president was assured even if the previous 14 years of Michael D Higgins were excellent too. The leading candidate, Catherine Connolly – an Independent member in the Irish parliament nominated by an alliance of seven small parties – walked it in on the first run-off with 63.4 percent of first preference votes. The turnout in a voluntary vote was 45.8 percent or 1.6m of 3.6m registered voters. The number of invalid votes was very high at 12.9 percent, no doubt a result of the presence of a Spoil the Vote movement dissatisfied with the choice on offer – a first in this presidential election. Before the vote, there was a good deal of activity especially with announced candidates quickly withdrawing, scuttlebutt and internal infighting in the parties over who to nominate. There was wide speculation about potential candidates from the law, academia, sport or drawn from entertainers and artists but nothing came of this even though several high profile people were close to nominating. Citizens of Northern Ireland can also nominate. The next election is due to take place in 2032.
Again, this was a well run process now well bedded-in. Yes, it’s a political one as many candidates are nominated by political parties elected to the parliament (minimum number for nominations is 20 so small parties can’t nominate on their own) but this becomes irrelevant once a party candidate is elected because the role of the Irish President is almost identical to our Governor-General ie no power and no money to do anything and is mostly ceremonial (Ireland was formerly a British Dominion with its own Vice Regal representative). This year there were no candidates nominated by at least four Councils. Candidates can spend up to 750,000 Euros on their strictly regulated and overseen campaigns. National media exposure through a variety of channels is organised for all candidates. It all works producing excellent heads of state who can represent the people well and advocate for them. There is absolutely no reason why a local version of this model, with a couple of tweaks for geography, diversity and local quirks (no politicians please and certainly no party nominations!) cannot work well in Australia. The Irish model incorporating such tweaks is backbone of the Australian Choice model launched by ARM in 2022 but it hardly gained traction. So, what’s holding us back? (apart from what we learned from The Voice referendum).
