No party logos on presidential ballot paper

PARTY affiliations will not appear on the presidential election ballot paper on Friday, in spite of statements from some Fianna Fail supporters that they will find it difficult to ignore a candidate's name with the party logo beside it.

Because the Constitution stipulates that the office of the president is non-partisan the ballot paper only contains the candidates' names, addresses, occupations or former occupations and photographs.

Though the candidate nominated by Fianna Fail, Jim Gavin, has withdrawn from the contest, the announcement of his exit came too late and his name remains on the ballot paper (see sample ballot paper below).

Fine Gael nominated its former government minister, Heather Humphreys and the ballot paper also refers to her as a former credit union manager.

Catherine Connolly, the favourite to succeed Micheal D Higgins according to the latest opinion poll, was nominated by the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and the Labour Party. Sinn Fein is backing Deputy Connolly having declined to run its own candidate.

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The Green Party is also supporting Catherine Connolly but individual members have disagreed with her endorsement by the party's national executive, including the former senator and minister of state from Offaly, Pippa Hackett.

Speaking to Midlands 103, Ms Hackett said: “I just think the Greens in particular are in a challenged position at the minute and I think their focus should not be on supporting a candidate not of their own and they probably should have stayed out of it and focused more on the party and its principles to develop that.”

The organic farmer from Geashill added: “I was always against the idea of sort of moving more to the left with the party. I felt that we had to be absolutely more centrist and bring as many people with us.”