Local Election candidates have until midday to withdraw from this year’s race.
91 in total have been either selected or have declared to have their names on the 7th of June ballot sheet; 50 for the four local electoral areas in Kilkenny with 41 for the three in Carlow.
Just over a quarter of the hopefuls are female.
The largest number, 20, are in the Kilkenny city local electoral area where there are seven seats, followed by 18 in Carlow town (also for seven seats), 15 in Tullow (six seats), 12 in Piltown (five seats), nine each in Castlecomer (six seats) and Callan Thomastown (six seats), eight in Bagenalstown / Muine Bheag (five seats).
There are 42 council seats in the two councils to be filled – 24 in Kilkenny with 18 in Carlow – and just four sitting councillors are not seeking re-election; Eamon Aylward (Piltown), Matt Doran & Patrick O’Neill (Callan Thomastown) and John Murphy (Tullow).
The rest are a mixture of former representatives and new names.
Stay tuned for our special programming introducing the candidates – The KCLR Daily will be broadcasting from each of the seven local electoral areas featuring the hopefuls in each and also outlining some of the areas’ issues, beginning with Bagenalstown tomorrow (Tuesday, 21st May).