 Colley was convinced that he had enough support to defeat the other likely candidate, Charles Haughey, and that Lynch should resign early to catch his opponents on the hop.Lynch agreed to this and resigned as leader of Fianna Fáil on 5 December 1979, assured that Colley had the votes necessary to win.However, Haughey and his supporters had been preparing for months to take over the leadership and Lynch's resignation came as no surprise.