The poor performance of immigrant politicians in the recent elections has led to suggestions of growing anti-foreigner feeling in Ireland. But could the main reasons be far less sinister? CATHERINE REILLY reports
FIANNA FAIL’S Stella Oladapo knew something was amiss when her phone hopped incessantly on the morning of polling day. The Nigerian mother-of-four, who was contesting for a seat on Letterkenny Town Council, had a shock in store.
“Most of my friends couldn’t vote for me,” reveals Oladapo, of the information in those calls. “I even helped register lots of foreigners – Indians, Filipinos – but they couldn’t vote for me either.”
What Oladapo hadn’t realised, and her Fianna Fáil colleagues not told her, was that the official boundaries of Letterkenny Town had not expanded to encompass many newer developments where she had extensively canvassed with her team of 16 (most were friends and not party members).
Homework not done, but the community activist wasn’t alone in her misunderstanding. A fellow Nigerian – Fine Gael’s Michael Abiola-Phillips, who was also running for Letterkenny Town Council – made the same error. In fact, Abiola-Phillips discovered that he couldn’t even vote for himself.
Four Fianna Fáil candidates, all incumbents, were re-elected onto the council, but their colleague Oladapo – who’s lived in Letterkenny for eight years and been a party member for seven – received just one transfer, on the second count, before being eliminated on 40 overall votes. Abiola-Philipps got 193.
Earlier this year, Fianna Fáil had selected Oladapo after Fine Gael declared countryman Abiola-Philipps, dividing the immigrant vote. But neither will be warming seats in Letterkenny’s civic offices this time around.
Irish politics is 'competitive'
It is such myriads that need to be considered before cries of racism echo in the air, according to UCD lecturer Bryan Fanning, who has written extensively on immigration issues.
Speaking generally, Fanning says that a lack of understanding of the Irish political scene, an underestimation of its rough-and-tumble, and an absence of the resources and networks available to many Irish candidates are key factors behind the underwhelming immigrant performance (which saw just four immigrant candidates elected from 44).
So too, notes Fanning, was the duplication of immigrant candidates in some wards – notably in west Dublin, where three Nigerians ran.
Yet looking ahead, Fanning takes the optimist’s view.
“In the 2009 local elections, there has been a maturing, if you will, of African candidates in particular – a significant number came forward and that is quite important. This maturing shouldn’t be overlooked,” he says.
Irish politics is “quite competitive”, adds the UCD lecturer, and many immigrant candidates “wouldn’t have been in their communities long enough” to build up the required profile. Some may have been naive enough to think that party colleagues don’t undercut and badmouth each other – but, says Fanning, they sometimes do.
It was the absence of a bigger network that Tendai Madondo of the Green Party especially missed, during her campaign in Tallaght South, where she was eliminated on the second count.
“Other mainstream candidates had the people they were in sixth class with, their siblings, a larger and broader network,” says Madondo, who is originally from Zimbabwe and living in Tallaght since 2002.
She also found the financial side of things a strain. “I did three fundraisers, which involved booking the hall, buying the food, getting a music system. Each fundraiser cost €1,000 to run.”
The toil was underscored by the fact that the Green Party didn’t have a representative in Tallaght South. “I had to build up networks and relationships with people on the ground,” says Madondo, who started canvassing in November. But she had to get a distribution company to help deliver her leaflets. “People didn’t have the time,” she says of potential helpers.
Madondo adds that her chances weren’t helped by an anti-Government backlash and a recession-induced “protectionist” feeling that, being an immigrant, fell on her doorstep. She is already on record as saying her campaign car was frequently spat at and stubbed with cigarettes.
The Firhouse-based woman says it’s “early days” as to whether she’ll run in five years, but she fully intends to stay involved in local community work. Running for election, despite her disappointment, has given Madondo “a platform” to do more.
An absence of support
Further north, party colleague George Enyoazu from Nigeria, who performed well in the Dundalk Town Council polls but went unelected, also felt the absence of a support network.
“My area is so large, and my style of face-to-face canvassing meant I needed a big team but only a few people made themselves available to me,” he said. “Sometimes I’d go with one person, and there was never more than three [helping] at a go. It was a bit too small and I was not able to cover the whole area.”
Could the Greens have given their man a bit more backup? “I got a level of support but I really needed more...[but] people work and have so many things that tie them down. One member of the party took time off work and divided his time between the candidates, I appreciated it.”
Also in Dundalk, Benedicta Attoh from Nigeria, who ran for Louth County Council, had some stern criticism for her party, Fine Gael.
“I faced resistance within the party locally,” she told this newspaper. “Between myself and my running mate, we had a winning strategy to take two seats from Dundalk South for the party but the strategy failed because of the resistance to change from within my party at the local level.”
She continued: “If you look at the result the figures clearly indicate that it was the same people who voted for me in 2004 that voted for me in 2009. I got 585 first preference votes as an independent. And in 2009 as a member of Fine Gael I got 586 first preference votes, so where was the Fine Gael vote? Meanwhile my running mate had more than what was required as quota in the first preference.
“If some of the first preference votes for my running mate were given to me we would have secured two seats because between the two of us we pulled 2,500 first preferences, up from 1,500 in 2004.”
Back at UCD, Bryan Fanning says transfers to immigrant candidates will need further study. In the meantime, it’s “crucial” that Ireland’s political parties retain their immigrant candidates and help develop supports for them
“It’s a form of integration policy-making that doesn’t cost that much to do,” he says, concluding that it would be “a tragedy” if any immigrant candidates or supporters felt disincentivised by the election results.
“The bottom line is: prevail, persevere, and do not give into fatalism and despair.”
It seems such advice is being heeded, for none of the candidates that Metro Éireann spoke to are ruling out a ‘next time’.
