We’re a month away from the local & European Parliament elections & you can expect to see more of the candidates in the coming days, or their faces at least.
While nominations will officially be taken from this Saturday (April 27th) until May 4, already 41 have declared for a seat in Kilkenny & another 27 in Carlow. One from each county has also opted to run for Europe as well.
Posters for both elections can go up from today – Returning Officer for Kilkenny Anne Maria Walsh has this reminder for the candidates “If you’re putting up posters they should be put up in urban areas, you can only put them up from the 24th of April & you must take them down seven days after polling day which will be the 31st of May”.
Meanwhile, six local areas & nine candidates have so far pledged to go poster free as part of a nation-wide campaign by ZeroWaste.ie which to date has seen 162 towns & villages sign up.
Leighlinbridge, Rathvilly, Clonegal & Hacketstown in Co Carlow as well as Callan & Tullahought in Kilkenny have all signed up. That means you’ll likely not see posters in their centres in the coming month, though it’s up to each area to set its own boundary.
David Weitbrecht is with ZeroWaste.ie & has been telling KCLR News “What we’re hoping is less or no posters in these areas, perhaps we’d even like to see these bans or poster free areas extend out to the countryside as well because why protect the towns and not protect the countryside, it’s just as environmentally vulnerable as well. Ideally we’d like whole counties & the whole country to go poster free”
