‘Conor McGregor for president’ makes a strong argument against emigrant voting rights

A grim, unsettling year was juddering towards the finish line when it delivered what may be one of its most surreal moments so far: Conor McGregor giving Elon Musk a lecture on the workings of the Local Government (Nomination of Presidential Candidates) Act 1937.

“I’d fancy my chances Elon, 100 per cent. I’d need to be nominated either by: at least 20 members of the Oireachtas; or at least four local authorities (AKA county councils) to run. Most (26) local authorities are county councils. There are also 3 city councils and 2 councils that oversee a city and a county ... A process,” said the bashful one, wrapping up his mini CSPE [Civic, Social and Political Education] class.

“That is an obscure process for sure. The people of Ireland deserve more clarity and transparency in how their leaders are chosen,” replied the billionaire space cowboy, echoing the broad sentiments of several constitution review groups.

Those against reform whisper back that maybe we should leave well enough alone; that in a small country with a very large emigrant population, there are many ways in which this could all go horribly wrong

He isn’t the first to proffer the view that forcing prospective candidates to trudge around four local authorities or get 20 TDs on board makes for an unnecessarily clunky process. Over the years, many arguments have been made about how our electoral system should be reformed — mostly around democratising presidential nominations or extending the vote to citizens abroad, on the very laudable grounds that Irish citizens outside the State are still part of the nation.

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Those against reform whisper back that maybe we should leave well enough alone; that in a small country with a very large emigrant population, there are many ways in which this could all go horribly wrong. And right on cue, in struts a 71kg case in point, wearing synthetic board shorts and flexing about how he could take the Taoiseach in a cage fight.

Conor McGregor — who appears to have spotted the gaping charisma-shaped hole in the emergent Irish far-right movement — announced shortly after the Dublin riots that he might like to run for the presidency of Ireland, to the glee of his very large fanbase in the US. Whether he’s merely showboating or genuinely putting himself forward as a yellow-pack Trump, offering himself up to the nation is his democratic right. Should he somehow manage to secure a nomination and win the largest proportion of votes, then I suppose you can only say buckle in for the cage fights on the lawn of the Áras.

But a glance at where his support is coming from is a reminder that maybe it’s a good thing the vote is not yet open to every Maga [Make America Great Again] supporter with a Tricolour in their profile and an Irish grandma with roots in “County Slig-go”. McGregor’s tweet coolly assessing his chances — “Potential competition if I run. Gerry, 78. Bertie. 75. Enda, 74 ... Or me, 35. Young, active, passionate, fresh skin in the game” — got 55,000 likes and 5.2 million views. A Twitter poll he ran got 220,000 votes and had him romping home with 88 per cent support. Back in the less flattering light of reality, a Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll found that 89 per cent would not vote for him and 8 per cent would.

The idea of extending votes in presidential elections to the Irish abroad has raised its head from time to time since the 1980s. The 2013 Convention on the Constitution voted 78 per cent in favour of it. It found “there are some strong arguments for granting votes at least to first generation emigrants in ways that do not swamp resident citizens’ votes” — worryingly, it was a bit woolly on how to prevent that swamping threat.

At some point, as part of a shared island future, citizens of Northern Ireland should and probably will be allowed to participate in elections in the Republic

Undeterred, the government announced in 2017 that a referendum would be held to allow Irish citizens resident outside the State to vote in presidential elections. It suggested seven possible groups to whom the vote could conceivably be extended – from all citizens outside the State at one end of the spectrum, to only those who have previously had a vote at the other. In 2019, this was advanced to Bill stage. But the whole thing was quite sensibly allowed to die a quiet death. In April this year, a group representing the diaspora wrote to then taoiseach Micheál Martin to complain that it had been kicked to touch again and now the earliest date for the referendum was 2025. Only “Ireland, Slovakia and Cyprus deprive their overseas citizens of the vote”, the letter said.

Thank goodness for that. While a generous and even romantic idea in theory, the practicalities are another matter entirely. At some point, as part of a shared island future, citizens of Northern Ireland should and probably will be allowed to participate in elections in the Republic. But opening the presidential election to anyone with Irish citizenship anywhere would be tokenistic and asking for trouble.

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Irish people have always had a confused relationship with the presidency. It is one of the weakest presidencies anywhere; yet the role is imbued with an outsize symbolism. As President Michael D Higgins has demonstrated again and again and again, a president who wishes to push the boundaries of the office will meet little resistance, due to the longstanding, increasingly awkward, convention of politicians not criticising the office.

To open the vote to Irish abroad at the same time as reforming the nominations process — allowing anyone who could pay, for example, a €5,000 deposit or collect 10,000 signatures to run — would be positively reckless.

Some suggest a more sensible target for reform would be Dáil elections. Really, the whole episode is the best argument yet for leaving things as they are. #McGregor4President should kill off for good the fantasy that extending voting rights to Irish abroad would be anything other than a well-meaning, naive and undemocratic disaster.