by Eoghan O’Boyle

THE race for the Áras is reaching its final stages, with voting centres opening on Friday and cards being sent to every house in the country.

Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys and the Independent Catherine Connolly, are well and truly on the last straight. With polls predicting a Connolly victory, it is very much still all to play for before voting begins this Friday.

This season of presidential elections has enough drama to make it more comparable to a season of The Traitors than to a major event in the country’s history. Dirt has been dug up on candidates – Connolly’s ex convict hire and Jim Gavin’s debt towards a former tenant, which would prove fatal to the former Dublin manager’s Áras aspirations. It’s clear to see that Humphreys is reaping the rewards of being the only candidate who had served in government as any previous dirty laundry would have aired out by now.

Despite all this, Catherine Connolly appears to be in pole position for the presidency, the Independent candidate and former Leas-Ceann Comhairle’s public appearances and constant canvassing has had profound success and, if victorious, would surely have been one of the key factors in the result.

Yet, despite Connolly’s prowess in the public eye and Humphrey’s clean slate, it is the common view of the public that neither candidate is really representative of the populace and it’s not impossible to see why this is the common consensus. Citizens considering Humphreys, who is the government backed candidate, may feel that voting for her is an endorsement of the current government when it may not be the case, meanwhile, voters thinking about Connolly may be concerned by her reluctance to “unequivocally condemn October 7”.

Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys.

When the Donegal News spoke to a number of people in Letterkenny it seemed that nationwide preference for Connolly is no different here, with one man saying: “Connolly is intelligent, very down to earth”, while another woman said she felt that Connolly was “more for young people, more towards education and Mica”.

This however, doesn’t indicate an unwavering commitment to the Independent. When I asked another man if he knew who he’d vote for he responded with: “No not a hundred percent, no”. When he said he was leaning closer to Connolly, I asked him why, to which he responded: “I’m more against other options than for her.”

When I enquired what a good president needed to be, one man answered: “A president needs to know what the people want”, and when I asked another lady if Heather Humphrey’s lack of Irish speaking was an issue, she said: “I would say it would probably help, but I have nothing against Heather Humphreys for not speaking Irish but she kept saying she’d do (learn) it but she never had time, that’s okay, it doesn’t bother me one way or another, but it would be nice.”

As we near the end of Michael D. Higgins’ 14-year term and a new dawn for Áras an Uachtaráin, there are many exciting questions to be asked; How will the Gavin fiasco affect Fianna Fáil? Will ballots be spoiled? And who will come out top trumps?