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THE NEWEST PARTY in the Irish political system were testing the waters in this local election, and its party leader Peadar Toíbín has said he’s “delighted” with the result.
Aontú won three seats in the local elections in the Republic and one seat in the Northern Ireland local elections. 53 candidates ran in the south.
The seats were won in Bailieborough-Cootehill by Sarah O’Reilly, in Navan by Emer Tóbín (Peadar’s sister), by Jim Codd in Rosslare and, earlier this month, Anne McCloskey clinched a seat in Derry.
The Navan TD previously attracted a number of councillors to switch sides, moving from Sinn Féin to Aontú – but this is the first local election where Toíbín could gauge the public’s reaction to the party.
Toíbín said he was very pleased with O’Reilly getting 1,700 first preference votes, adding that it was the first time she had ever stood for election.
Before the election, Toíbín issued a warning to voters that if they vote for Fine Fáil, they will get Fine Gael. While the public don’t appear to have heeded his warning, the former Sinn Féin member says he has opened up an alternative space for voters, particularly those who agreed with his stance on abortion, which he ultimately lost his position in Sinn Féin over.
Prior to his resignation from Sinn Féin, Tóibín was suspended from the party for six months because he voted against the abortion legislation in the Dáil.
His party’s manifesto states that one of its core values is that it believes “all human life should be protected and that no mother or child should be left behind”.
The party has not escaped criticism. Critics honed in on Toíbín’s comments recently about opening up a debate on immigration.
Addressing this at the party’s manifesto launch before the election, he said he didn’t believe there should be orthodoxy in debate, stating that “people are entitled to discuss the issue of immigration as long as it’s reasonable and respectful”.
But not many political parties get off to such a smooth start.
Toíbín states that Aontú’s percentages are good, but pointed out that you won’t see them on the RTÉ website, stating that the party has been lumped in under the category of “others”.
The Meath TD told TheJournal.ie that he has made a complaint to the national broadcaster, stating that the party performed just as well as Independents 4 Change (who are mentioned by name on the website) and added that all Dáil parties should be treated the same.
A statement from RTE said: “RTÉ can confirm we received a query from Aontú which we have acknowledged and are in the process of replying to.”
Reflecting on the figures, Toíbín said it was “very clear” that in the constituencies his party fought, Sinn Féin votes were going to his candidates.
“I am not saying we are responsible for all of Sinn Féin’s woes in this election, a significant chunk were down to us,” he said.
So, what next for the party?
With everyone speculating about a general election this year, Toíbín said his party is going to target seats in seven or eight Dáil constituencies.
Toíbín said he is setting his sights on Donegal, Cavan-Monaghan, Meath east and west, Wexford, Limerick City, Galway, Mayo, Kerry and Cork north-west.
It’s full speed ahead for the fledgling party, with Aontú selection conventions for these areas taking place in June.
What about any sitting TDs – are they interested in coming on board?
When he first set up the party, Toíbín said he was in talks with some politicians about joining up.
“Since the election, I have been approached by some TDs,” he said, however, he said he was cautious about naming names.
The political system is broken in Ireland and the people who are the collateral damage need a voice, said Toíbín.
“Aontú will be that voice.”
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Our biased media want FFG … That’s it..
@Willy: Luckily the media don’t vote in elections isn’t it?
Aontu, socdems, pbp, greens, there is that many splinter groups you’d swear it was northern Ireland.
@Matrix1: sign of a healthy democracy. Would you rather bi-partisan politics like in the US where you have 2 choices?
@Sean Murphy: With the way the electorate vote in this country, there might as well be only two choices.
None of these splinter groups can manage to make any changes.
@Matrix1: Why not? Plenty of small parties have made changes in and out of government before. Why not in the future?
@Bryan Butler: I’m all for change, but none of these new parties seem to be able to work together
@Sean Murphy: sign of democracy in this country..hahaha where have u been for tha last 90 years..
@Matrix1: including the independents ,get their nose in the Trough and they soon turn native.
the left need to join together now or they how no power
@Robert Phelan: they will have
If they expand their policies on immigration, they might make headway.
There has long been a gap for a left republican pro tradition party. Sinn Féin have become fixated with courting the “leafy liberal” vote and have joined in with the sneering at much of the electorate.
@Jerry McCarthy: There are so many contradictions in your comment I find it difficult to know where to start. Could you explain what you mean by “Left Republican pro tradition” ?
Does this man not understand how local politics work, when your popular in your constituency and are seen to be doing something for the local area, you could be a member of the monster raving looney party and still get in, general elections are when the party lines are drawn.
Any party whose entire agenda is to undo a vote which a majority of the country supported is not going to go far or do much.
@Wade Wilson: They don’t need to undo the vote itself, that was just to repeal the eight. All they need to do is to get enough seats to hold the balance of power in a future government. They will then be able to secure changes to abortion legislation as their price for support. How many seats do you need for that 10 seats, 5 seats, 3 seats?
This left wing party should join forces with renua the right wing party….. In the fairness of balance!
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: nothing left wing about this crowd. Nothing.
@JustOneScoop: Yes it is a left wing party, or at minimum centre left as we know little about the actual policies they wish to implement.
But just because they are appearing on the other side of an issue that is perceived as a cause of the left, does not make them not left wing.
@Mushy Peas: they’re religious wing nuts and antichoicers. No decent leftists would be seen in their company. Where are you getting your definition of left from?
@Martin Meyler: solely on the fact that they tend towards socialism.
What is your definition of a decent leftist?
@Mushy Peas: “We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions” ~ Adolf Hitler. I suggest you also look into Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Tito, Menghistu, Suharto, Brezhnev and Kim Il Sung for more examples of great leftists!
@Hans Flouride: why are you addressing that at me?
I’m against socialism, as I believe it leads to arbitrary power residing in the hands of a select group of few, who I don’t think will successfully help the masses.
My issue, is that the left claims to own certain moral and social issues and I argue this is not and should not be the case.
I also think the political spectrum of left/right is confusing in discussions as they are vague, so should be best avoided.
@Hans Flouride: Well, we all know how Adolf turned out. I suggest that a system of government is unlikely to be actually socialist, despite its claims, when it murdered real socialists in gas chambers. And how uninformed or just disingenuous does a person have to be these days to persist in the ridiculous belief that Nazis were socialists?
3 out of the 949 council seats in the Republic, not exactly sweeping the boards. The Healy-Raes have more than that. And out of interest, who’s funding Aontu? They had a lot of posters around the place, are we to take it that this is all on the back of the donations from grannies in Donegal?
@Aindriú de Domhain: maybe George Soros.
@Aindriú de Domhain: US pro life wingnuts most probably.
Buch of onanists. (look it up, it’s in the bible).
@Martin Meyler: I can’t find my bible!
@Yurty Tim: it means w*nkers
@Jumperoo: winkers, exactly.
SINN Fein Light…Pro life, with all the lost lives left for the mothership to handle.
RTE and the paper media are completely biased, we all can’t be wrong. Aonta new party mentioned they will address immigration,why are we afraid to have an open debate / discussion about the concerns for the Irish people. Every other EU country are happy to include their citizens when it comes to inclusiveness.
53 candidates. 3 elected. Back in January they had 8 councillors.
And a whole Journal article about *how well* they did?! WTF?!
@Bealtaine Healy-Rae-Nua: well how many greens were elected. They haven’t even warmed their seats and were all going to have to pay more tax.
Aontu are new upcoming party pray god they gain seats for this country before vradkar cronies destroy whats left of our country god be with ye in 2020.
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