Madam, - There has been some unjustified sniping at the Progressive Democrats following the election of Senator Ciaran Cannon as the party's new leader.
Much has been made of the fact that "only" 1,056 votes were cast by party members in that election. Yet it is worth remembering that when John Gormley was elected leader of the Green Party in July 2007, a mere 775 members of that party voted.
It is also worth remembering that the PDs and Greens are the only two major Irish political parties to involve their rank-and-file members in the selection of their leaders. The others exclude ordinary members from their leadership elections and confine the vote to an inner circle of Oireachtas members.
The Progressive Democrat party has proven itself, by its recent leadership election, to be truly democratic. I have every confidence that, reinvigorated under the leadership of Ciaran Cannon and Fiona O'Malley, it will remind the Irish public why it is also a genuinely progressive party. - Yours, etc,
TONY WILLIAMS,
Victoria Road,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.