Christy Galligan
THE number of candidates to stand for the local elections in May is growing by the week with People Before Profit due to launch their Donegal campaign in Letterkenny this week.
This will see an increase in the number of candidates from the left increase as Owen Curran of the Donegal Anti-Austerity Alliance has already declared his candidature for the Glenties area and he expects their grouping will have a candidate in every electoral area of the county.
Also this week, former Garda Christy Galligan announced he is looking at throwing his hat into the ring too, as is his sister Mary, married to Senator Jimmy Harte who is seeking the party’s nomination to stand.
Speaking to the Donegal News this week Cllr Brid Smith of the People Before Profit Party was optimistic that they already had people in the county interested in standing for the party. She did not see any conflict with other candidates of the left who might stand.
“So far I think we have three candidates prepared to stand in Donegal. One of these is Niall Blaney, not the former TD. We are not just about anti-austerity. We need new political parties based on people power and getting electoral power is part of that. We already have 25 to 30 candidates to stand in the local elections and in Donegal, as in other areas, we will be working fraternally with other groups,” Ms Smith said.
The People Before Profit alliance was formally established in October 2005 by workers from a variety of local campaigns.
The meeting to launch the campaign will take place on Wednesday in Letterkenny.
Spokesperson, Ms Smith said the launch will be an opportunity to explain to the public what the organisation stands for.
“While we are a relatively new party we have had good successes in the last local elections and we have Richard Boyd-Barrett who has had quite an impact in the public arena and in Dáil Eireann.
“We are putting ourselves out there and letting people know what we stand for. Workers have endured cuts, taxes and levies and we want to put an alternative view on how the crisis should be handled,” Ms Smith said.
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