The Presidential election will be held on Friday October 26th.
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has confirmed he’ll sign the order to hold the Presidential election today.
The writ allowing a Presidential election will be signed today meaning those hoping to run for President will have 28 days to get their name on the ballot.
They need the backing of four local councils or 20 TDs or Senators to run for the office.
Local authorities will be meeting over the next two weeks to make their nominations and a number of them have already heard pitches from candidates.
Nominations will close on September 26th with the election being held a month later.
The winner will be inaugurated on November 11th.
The field of candidates will include current President Michael D Higgins and a Sinn Féin candidate.
Those councillors who have held meetings have said businessman Gavin Duffy and Independent Senator Joan Freeman are likely to get nominations
While artist Kevin Sharkey and journalist Gemma O’Doherty also impressed a number of councils yesterday.
They now have 28 days to get on the ballot.
Carlow County Council heard from four hopefuls a few weeks ago – their Kilkenny counterparts will meet at least seven contenders this Friday.
Meanwhile, there’s been speculation that businessman Sean Gallagher’s set to add his name to the ring – a spokesperson for the entrepreneur yesterday told KCLR “Any decision in relation to contesting will be made after the Govt formally move the election writ”.
Now that that’s happened we should find out soon what that decision is.
