by Kate Heaney
WITH local elections for Donegal County Council expected to take place in May or June of this year, political parties and independent candidates have begun planning as to who might fill the 37 seats on the local authority.
Sinn Féin, who currently hold ten seats, are planning to field up to 18 candidates with at least two more female candidates.
Director of Elections for the local elections, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD is confident all of their candidates will be selected by the end of next month.
Fine Gael, who hold six seats, have already selected six candidates to stand, three outgoing and three new faces. At the weekend Aaron Sweeney from Milford was selected for the party.
The school teacher joined Young Fine Gael when he was just 13.
Other candidates selected include sitting Councillor Barry Sweeney and newcomer Manus Boyle who were chosen when more than 200 of the party faithful recently attended a party meeting to vote.
Joe Molloy from the Gaoth Dobhair area was also selected last week to stand for the party.
Veteran Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh will seek to hold his seat while Johnny McGuinness is to be the only nominee at the Carndonagh convention next weekend and he is expected to take the seat held by his late father Cllr Bernard McGuinness.
Fianna Fáil, who hold the largest number of seats in the council at 12, have nominated Martin Hegarty to put his name forward to the party’s selection convention in the Donegal electoral area.
He was chosen at the recent Fianna Fáil Kilcar Cumann meeting. However, the party have not, as yet appointed a Director of Elections for the local elections.
Cllr Ciaran Brogan told the Donegal News this week that there was not a lot happening on the election front as yet.
“Sadly we lost Cllr Noreen McGarvey and her month’s mind Mass will be held this weekend,” said Cllr Brogan.
“We are lucky to have 12 hard working councillors on the council. What you find with local elections is that a lot of support is based on personal experience of voters. The geography of Donegal also impacts voting with people wanting to keep their local councillor,” he said.
Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh said Fine Gael do not have a director of elections in place yet either.
“We are still at the stage of doing conventions and they have seen a good turnout of members. At local level you are not going to get someone on a €60,000 a year job to go on the council. Getting someone to stand as a TD should be easier as that is a career.”
He confirmed that no one had been chosen yet to stand and try and take the seat Joe McHugh will vacate at the next general election.
“We need someone with a county-wide profile so watch this space,” Cllr Kavanagh added.
Deputy MacLochlainn said this week Sinn Féin are hoping to make gains on the ten seats they already hold in the council.
“We would hope to increase the number of Sinn Féin councillors in the Letterkenny and Milford areas. The three sitting councillors in Inishowen will go again and we will add two more.
“Obviously we need a lot more women candidates and that is a challenge. When you look around in Donegal there are strong women in the community, business and public sector but that is not reflected in the council. We will do our best to get as many women elected as possible,” he said.
On the issue of a perceived growth in far right opinions and immigration Deputy MacLochlainn said while people had genuine concerns about pressure on services, he would like to see someone from the far right put their name into the election ring and test the claims they make, he added.
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