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Parties eye extra Council
seat
04.07.08
by Liam Porter, Inishowen Independent
INISHOWEN will have at least one new councillor
following next year’s local elections following
boundary changes which will see the peninsula gain
an extra councillor.
Political parties in the peninsula are expected to
shortly begin their strategies in advance of next
year’s elections which will see an extra seat up for
grabs in the Inishowen Electoral Area.
Speaking to the Inishowen Independent Fianna Fail
Party Whip on Donegal County Council, Francis
Conaghan, said his party had met to commence
planning for the local elections, but would meet
again around September to finalise their plans.
“When we did meet a while back it was in advance of
the report on boundary changes so we were shooting
in the dark a bit. Now that the report is out we’ll
sit down and discuss its findings and work out our
strategy from that,” he said.
Councillor Conaghan said it was too early to say if
the party would seek to run extra candidates in an
effort to secure the extra seat in the electoral
area.
“It is often the case that extra seats work in
favour of smaller parties and independents so we’ll
see what happens when we meet later in the year.” |
At present Fianna Fail
have four of the six council seats in Inishowen with
Fine Gael and Sinn Fein holding the other two seats.
Fine Gael who lost a seat last time out will be
seeking at least a second seat, and it will be
interesting to see what potential candidates emerge
to run alongside long-standing councillor Bernard
McGuinness.
Councillor McGuinness told the Inishowen Independent
that there had been an unprecedented interest in the
Fine Gael party in recent months and he expected |
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the party to field
several strong candidates.
“As yet there have been no decisions made in
relation to the candidates but I will certainly be
seeking to run again and I’m sure we’ll have a
strong field considering the interest there has been
in the party in recent times. In fact in the 28
years that I’ve been a councillor I’ve never
witnessed such interest.”
Councillor McGuinness suggested that with a sitting
TD in Donegal North East the party is in a strong
position to contest the election and he maintained
the party may field three candidates. It is unlikely
though that one of these candidates will be
Moville’s Martin Farren who contested the local
elections last time, but backed Jimmy Harte’s
independent campaign in the general election. |
Meanwhile Sinn Fein who
saw Padraig MacLochlainn top the poll in the 2004
election with 2,264 first perference votes, will be
seeking to take a second seat in Inishowen,
particularly following MacLochlainn’s huge vote in
last year’s general election.
MacLochlainn has also been tipped as a possible
candidate for the European elections confirmed this
week that his hat was in the ring, but said he’d be
hopeful of contesting three campaigns next year.
“I have to say that I’m intrigued at the possibility
of representing the people |
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of Inishowen. I’m
hoping that the party delegates will select me as a
candidate for both the Buncrana Town Council and
Inishowen Electoral Area.”
He added however that the Sinn Fein vote in last
year’s election meant the party will definitely run
a second candidate.
“We’ll have a candidate in the North of Inishowen
and one in the South and the spread of votes in last
year’s elections suggest to us that we have a good
chance of taking a second seat,” he said.
Meanwhile is thought that Buncrana woman Sheenagh
McMahon could well contest the election for the
Green Party, although again the party have not made
any decisions regarding their candidates.
Independent candidates are also likely to emerge
before the elections with Mary Doherty of the
Christian Solidarity Party and Moville’s Arthur
McGuinness both of whom contested last year’s
general election also possible candidates. |
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