IRELAND’S LARGEST political party is languishing behind its main party-political rival in the selection of immigrant candidates for the summer’s local elections, Metro Éireann can reveal.
In what could be considered an embarrassing development for Integration Minister Conor Lenihan TD, his party Fianna Fáil – which is Ireland’s biggest – is nearing completion of its candidate selection procedure and has only put forward two immigrants, one of whom has lived in Ireland for nearly 30 years.
Fine Gael, meanwhile, has already chosen six such candidates and has not yet completed it selection process.
There are over 1,600 county, city and town council seats in Ireland which will be up for grabs in local elections this coming summer.
Of Fianna Fáil’s two ‘immigrant’ candidates, one of them – Pakistani-born Shaheen Ahmed, who will run in Lucan – is a long-time resident of Ireland and is said to be a personal friend of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. The party’s other such candidate is Anna Banko, originally from Poland, who will contest in the Limerick City south electoral area.
The main governing party, which now uses an interview panel at its headquarters to appoint candidates rather than through votes from members in local areas, is thought to have a high amount of incumbent councillors across the country, and has not implemented any policy of so-called ‘positive discrimination’ – a stance also maintained by all of Ireland’s political parties to date.
Speaking to Metro Éireann, Integration Minister Conor Lenihan defended the low number of immigrants selected thus far, and added that the party’s drubbing at the 2004 local elections means it can only choose those who stand a chance.
“We don’t believe in selecting candidates just for the sake of it,” he remarked, adding that Fianna Fáil took “a fair beating” in the 2004 elections and that the party’s label may not be an easy sell to voters this summer.
Minister Lenihan confirmed that Fianna Fáil has “plenty of incumbent councillors” but insisted that if an immigrant member is good enough, “they’ll come through on the ticket”. He said the new selection process means that those who go forward “have a very good chance”.
Fine Gael, the country’s main opposition party, has so far chosen six immigrant candidates: Adeola Ogunsina from Nigeria, who’ll run for a seat on Fingal County Council; Polish-born Joanne Crowley, who’s contesting for a place on Clonakilty Town Council; Michael Abiola-Phillips from Nigeria, who’s running for Letterkenny Town Council; Vilma MoceviÄienÄ— from Lithuania, who will contest for a seat on Balbriggan Town Council; Okey Williams-Kalu from Nigeria, running for Castlebar Town Council; and BartÅ‚omiej Brużewicz from Poland, who will compete for a seat on Dublin City Council.
Labour has so far selected two immigrant candidates, while Sinn Féin has not yet chosen anyone of an immigrant background. The Greens have selected five such candidates to date.
