Independents and left-leaning parties have until Friday to decide whether they will join Sinn Féin in a voting pact.

Sinn Féin is set to announce it is signed up to the transfer plan drafted by the Right2Change campaign - which came together against the water charge.

It will see the party's supporters asked to continue their vote preferences for other left-wing parties and independents - which could include People Before Profit, the Anti Austerity Alliance and the Social Democrats.

Right2Change Spokesperson David Gibney told Newstalk Breakfast that anyone who wants to be part of the pact must make their decision by Friday.

“We asked them to go away and think for two weeks and give us an answer by Friday the 30th about whether they would be willing to form a progressive government based on this platform, if the numbers allowed after the next election,” he said.

“And we also asked them to have a think about how they could work together to deliver this objective.”

Sinn Féin has said they will ask their supports to give second and third preference votes to ther left wing parties, regardless of if they reciprocate. Paul Murphy, Anti Austerity Alliance TD, has already said he will not reciprocate.

Mr Gibney told Ivan that Right2Change called a meeting of senior left wing figures on Friday the 16th of October to discuss the proposals. Representatives from Sinn Féin, the Anti-Austerity Alliance, People before Profit, the Social Democrats and a range of independent TDs and others were all in attendance.

“We asked them did they all support the policy principles that we’ve developed, which is about their right to water, but also about the right to health, education, housing and others,” he said.

“We also asked them to go away and think for two weeks and give us an answer by Friday the 30th about whether they would be willing to form a progressive government based on this platform, if the numbers allowed after the next election.

The process is focused on “concentrating on policy rather than parties,” Mr Gibney said. “Trying to get people to think about human rights based policies ... that’s how this document has come about.”

“We began this process by concentrating on policy rather than parties, and trying to get people to think about human rights based policies .... and that’s how the policy document has come about.”

The response so far has been positive, Mr Gibeny says, with independent TDs such as Clare Daly and Mick Wallace likely to be interested. 

Listen below to the full Newstalk Breakfast discussion of the possible left-wing pact, and the interview with Mr. David Gibney

Deputy leader of the party, Mary Lou McDonald, says they have to make an alternative government possible:

Renua leader Lucinda Creighton spoke to Shane Coleman's on today's Right Hook about the proposed pact.

"When you have a range of parties coming together announcing transfer pacts such as this, they tend to benefit the larger parties and gobble up the smaller parties to a large extent," she argued.

"What is the point of People Before Profit, or the Anti Austerity Alliance, or the Social Democrats if their real purpose is just to prop up Sinn Féin? So they begin to lose their identity".

The most obvious danger to such a pact appears to be the very nature of politics itself, with disparate candidates and groups unlikely to remain banded in any significant way when their owns eat is on the line. 

The policy document “is a set of broad strokes”, Ms McDonald told Newstalk Lunchtime.

The voting pact, and the policy agreements within, “does not take the place of any party’s individual manifesto,” Ms McDonald added.

The power of a pact means it could possibly bring about change in Government, Ms McDonald said.

"People want at the next election the opportunity not just to see he back of Fine Gael and Labour ... there is a sense in which people want an opportunity to elect something different, to have a truly progressive government.

The left must band together on the issues they can agree on, McDonald said.

“It is incumbent on us to focus on those areas where we agree ... of course you wish to maximise the vote for your own party or your independent seat, but there’s a bigger responsibility ," she added.

When asked by Jonathan Healy how the pact would survive in the competitive world of election politics, Richard Boyd Barrett, People before Profit TD, said he disagreed with the assessment of the fundamental nature of politics.

“I don’t agree that all politicians or all people involved in politics are just worried about their own seat,” he said.

The pact, and a unified voting effort from voters on the left, is essential to a broader commitment to the principles of fighting austerity.

“It’s about starting with the policies that ... can offer a political alternative,” he said.

“It’s about people making a commitment to a set of principles which they believe will bring real change, end austerity and be progressive in nature”.