TD John Perry, who took FG to court over voting convention result, is added to party's ticket
By Daniel McConnell, Political Editor
Fine Gael will add sitting TD John Perry to its General Election ticket in Sligo-Leitrim, it has emerged.
A meeting of the party's National Executive is to consider a recommendation tomorrow night and Mr Perry is to make an announcement on the Dáil plinth this afternoon, the Irish Examiner has confirmed.
The former junior minister for small business took High Court action against the party after he failed to secure a place on the constituency ticket at a selection convention in October.
In court, Mr Perry called for the convention result to be ruled out of order because of serious irregularities in how the vote was conducted.
Fine Gael general secretary Tom Curran yesterday told the High Court the option of adding Mr Perry as a third candidate for the General Election in Sligo-Leitrim was “still in play”.
Mr Curran said that with Fine Gael standing at up to 32% in the polls, it is “possible for the party to look again at this”.
He said that at the time of the convention the party was at 28% in the polls, but it was normal practice to look at this again and as a result of research decide to add candidates based on national performance.
