County councils in the Republic have been asked to support a resolution giving people in the North the right to vote in presidential elections.
Mr David Hyland, a Sinn Féin town councillor on the Newry & Mourne District Council, said the resolution was "a first step" in seeking greater participation and representation for Northern Irish people in elections in the Republic.
The exact wording which Mr Hyland and fellow Sinn Féin councillor Mr A.B. Lewis put forward at the December meeting read: "That this council calls on An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the Irish Government to recognise the exclusion of Irish citizens resident in the Six Counties from exercising their right to participate in presidential elections and calls on the Irish Government to bring forward the necessary legislation to allow them to vote in elections for the office of president of Ireland."
The council further agreed to circulate all councils in Northern Ireland and in the Republic seeking their support and asking them to write to the Taoiseach expressing this support. The five Unionist members on the council voted against the motion but Sinn Féin and SDLP members supported it.
He expected most councils in the North, almost half of which were Sinn Féin or nationalist controlled, to endorse it. It was their right as part of the Belfast Agreement to be able to vote in presidential elections, Mr Hyland said.
The fact that Mrs McAleese was a Northerner meant there was great interest in the presidential elections in the North.
The council hopes to have the resolution accepted by "most nationally minded" councils in the North and by a majority in the South in time for the presidential elections in November 2004.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has replied to the council's letter, but not favourably, he said. However, that reply would not deter the campaign.