Ms Liz McManus has been elected deputy leader of the Labour Party following a nail-biting count in Dublin last night. She succeeds Mr Brendan Howlin who lost in his bid to become leader of the party when Mr Pat Rabbitte won by a handsome margin.
|
|
Labour deputy leader, Ms Liz McManus
|
Mr Rabitte had a loose election arrangement with Mr Willie Penrose who was running for deputy leadership. But the Westmeath TD narrowly lost to Ms McManus after the votes of firstly Mr Joe Costello and then Ms Joan Burton were distributed.
Mr Penrose held a narrow lead after the first count but the distribution of preferences favoured Ms McManus.
Mr Penrose was on 32.6 per cent, Ms McManus on 29.1 per cent, Ms Burton secured a respectable 25.2 per cent of the vote and Mr Costello was on 13.1 per cent, when the result of the first count was announced shortly before 11 p.m.
While Mr Cortello's vote was more or less evenly split between Ms McManus and Mr Penrose, Ms Burton scored poorly and was eliminated. When her votes were distributed, signs of Labour's large female membership backing a woman candidate emerged, as Ms McManus overturned a deficit of nearly 1,000 to win by 82 votes.
The result was announced at 11.45 p.m.
The Rabitte/Penrose combination was seen as the ideal ticket with Mr Rabitte representing urban voters and Mr Penrose appealing to rural voters. While Ms McManus is a Wicklow TD, her base is Bray which means her appeal to rural voters may be limited.
Mr Rabbitte, a native of Co Mayo, will hope his background will be sufficient to appeal to those outside Labour's traditional urban heartlands.
The result also means that the leadership and deputy leadership posts have been filled by former Democratic Left members.