BOTH FIANNA Fáil and Fine Gael are formally to select their candidates for the Dublin South byelection tomorrow as the country gears up for elections on June 5th.
Party workers are in overdrive for the local and European elections as well as two byelections in Dublin South and Dublin Central.
Some 31 candidates have been so far selected to run for Europe and though nominations for the June contest do not close until next Monday, most parties have already named their candidates.
The entrants will contest 12 seats: three in each constituency of Dublin, East, North West and South.
For the first time anti-Lisbon Treaty party Libertas will run candidates, though the party has not fielded anyone in the most hotly contested constituency, South, where nine people will battle for three seats.
Fianna Fáil has still to find a candidate to replace sitting MEP Seán Ó Neachtain who had initially intended to run, but withdrew in April on health grounds.
And a particularly tough battle is expected in Dublin, where four sitting MEPs will fight with some strong contenders for only three seats.
Nominations for the local elections will close on May 15th and thousands of sitting and aspiring councillors will be on the beat in their local areas in the next few weeks.
Nominations for the two byelections will close on May 22nd.
Fine Gael is due to name its candidate for Dublin South tomorrow night. Fianna Fáil will also hold a selection convention in the constituency tomorrow night with Shay Brennan, son of the late Séamus Brennan, the favourite to get the nomination ahead of Senator Maria Corrigan. The Labour Party candidate in Dublin South is Senator Alex White who ran in the constituency in the last general election.
The Fianna Fáil selection convention in Dublin Central, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Independent TD Tony Gregory will also take place tomorrow evening.
Maurice Ahern, the brother of the former taoiseach, is expected to contest the nomination against Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick. Cllr Tom Stafford may also enter the race.
Senator Ivana Bacik has emerged as the leading figure for the Labour nomination while Cllr Maureen O’Sullivan is being put forward by the Tony Gregory organisation.
While most voters cast their ballot on June 5th, it is expected people on the offshore islands will be voting on June 2nd. And according to European candidate Susan O’Keefe, many of the islanders could be disenfranchised.
The Labour Party North West candidate has called on Minister for the Environment John Gormley to review the practice of requiring those on offshore islands to vote several days in advance of polling day for the rest of the country.
She said there were a significant number of people on the larger islands, such as Aranmore in Donegal or the Aran Islands in Galway, who worked on the mainland and who returned home at weekends.
“They will have no prospect of voting on a Tuesday, but if the islands voted on Friday like the rest of the country then many would be home in time to vote before close of polls at 10pm,” she said.
Voting three days in advance of the rest of the country was excessively cautious in this day and age, Ms O’Keefe said.