Sinn Fein and Labour in Talks on Seanad Vote Pact

The Irish Times are reporting that Labour and Sinn Fein are in talks on a voting pact which will allow them to return an extra candidate each in the Seanad election. The pact would see support for Alex White (Lab) from Sinn Fein Councillors and for Pearse Doherty (SF) from Labour Councillors. The really interesting element to this is that it is the first formal political pact of its kind with Sinn Fein and suggests that the next five years are likely to see further rehabilitation of the party in the eyes of the other established parties (at least formally/publicly).

There is little doubt that the disappointing elections for both parties (and perhaps the figure of Joe Costello at the head of Seanad Elections for Labour) focussed minds within the parties. Although the Labour leader will remain antagonistic to Sinn Fein, the pact could plausibly begin more amicable relations among the two parties. Sinn Fein for its part will be delighted to get Doherty into Kildare Street since they threw a great deal of effort into his campaign in Donegal. That time out it was not to be, on a day when they were very much left out of the voter’s preferences. However much has been written thus far on the condition of the leadership of the party in the South and the types of figures that they needed/wanted to get in yet failed. Having Doherty in some national position will be a bonus and perhaps we will again see a tilt at Europe from him.

However on a formal level this deal would be far more important as it takes the sort of deals we have seen for a while in local government between Sinn Fein and others and moves them into the national stage. Granted it is Seanad elections but the symbolism of this move at a national election to parliament is deep indeed. Sinn Fein are focussing on the 2009 elections but this move will feed into a build up to 2012 where it is clear the party needs to examine the manner in which it relates to the electorate. That the taboo will have been broken to some extent at a national level matters, in both media and psychological terms, for this would break the taboo. The question of what Sinn Fein do with Doherty if he gets in is also a very interesting one, since he is a rising star in the party. There is no doubt he will be put forward to face the press/public more regularly but the jockeying for and of leadership positions are also likely to be very important over the next five years.

This may end up coming to nought, but to see the logic of seats winning out over a long standing principle of boycott suggests that the principle of boycotting Sinn Fein itself is now quite weak in some quarters and Sinn Fein’s confidence that parties would come knocking if the numbers stacked up was not unfounded. This could mean interesting times ahead though those who seek a progressive consensus would be well advised not to get carried away. Such processes of ‘normalisation’ are often associated with a similar process in policy and this is very early days.