KILDARE GENERAL, 4 May 2002: by Brian Byrne. A total of 14 candidates are contesting the General Election in Kildare’s two 3-seater constituencies, six of them in Kildare North and eight in Kildare South.
Only one independent candidate had signed in by close of nominations yesterday, Gerald Fitzgibbon in Kildare South. All six incumbents in the two constituencies are running again.
In Kildare North, the candidates are Bernard Durkan (FG), Paul Kelly (FF), Anne Kelly-McCormack (Green), Charlie McCreevy (FF), Emmet Stagg (Labour) and Kate Walsh (PD). The outgoing TDs are Durkan, McCreevy and Stagg.
In Kildare South, the candidates are John Dardis (PD), Alan Dukes (FG), Gerald Fitzgibbon (Indpendent), Rainsford Hendy (FG), Sean Ó Fearghaill (FF), J J Power (Green), Sean Power (FF) and Jack Wall (Labour). Dukes, Sean Power and Jack Wall are the outgoing TDs.
On initial examination, it is likely that Kildare North electors will return the same candidates, while the incumbents in Kildare South are facing a more interesting situation.
In Kildare North, the Fianna Fail party is continuing its strategy of consolidating finance minister Charlie McCreevy's position, running Leixlip solicitor Paul Kelly to mop up the extreme North county party vote. Once again, Bernard Durkan of Fine Gael is ploughing his own solid furrow, while Labour's Emmet Stagg is unlikely to have much difficulty returning to the Dail on the back of his very solid performance as a constituency politican. Green Party candidate Anne Kelly-McCormack, who lives in Kilnamanagh in Dublin, is something of an unknown quantity, while new-to-PDs Kate Walsh is unlikely to gain more than a proportion of the poll-topping Celbridge vote which catapulted her from Community Council to County Council politics.
In Kildare South, it would be no surprise to see Labour's Jack Wall topping the poll, on the back of carefully-maintained local constituency work in the South end of the county. Alan Dukes of Fine Gael will depend on colleague Cllr Rainsford Hendy to bring the faithful out in a part of the constituency where Fianna Fail's Sean Ó Fearghaill has been working hard. Oddly enough, it seems that Ó Fearghaill is as much a threat to incumbent party colleague Sean Power as he might be to any of the others, and it will be interesting to see what might happen in a division of the Fianna Fail vote. Green J J Power is a brother of Sean's, and served a term as a county councillor. John Dardis of the PDs has a strong personal vote base from Kilcullen right across to the West of the constituency, but it remains to be seen if his undoubted personal popularity and significant visibility as a Senator will work in the tight confines of a 3-seater.
We'll consider the election further as the pace hots up next week. The poll will be held on May 17, with the polling stations open between 7.30am and 10.30pm, the longest opening time ever.
©2002knn
