Editorial: Who will be our next president?

It has been truly uninspiring but it will soon be over.

Friday’s election brings to an end a presidential election that has seemed longer than usual. The real excitement of this election was out of the way early on when the battle to get on the ballot ended with only 3 candidates, two of whom were from Government parties.

The only Cork contenders, Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher and our history columnist Cllr Kieran McCarthy bowed out leaving us with no possibility of a second ever Cork president. The next great development was the shock ending of Jim Gavin’s campaign after a long-standing issue of rent he owed to a tenant came to light.

His effective exit from the campaign meant that all attention was wholly focussed on Independent Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys leaving the smallest field in 35 years. Veteran leftwing activist and Galway TD Connolly has taken an impressive lead with bookies making her a huge favourite to win. She has a significant following from young people however, how are traditionally less likely to vote. She has expressed some anti-EU views, and attracted criticism for a 2018 trip to Syria along with fellow TDs Maureen O’Sullivan, Mick Wallace, and Clare Daly. She has the support of Sinn Féin, the Green Party, the Social Democrats and some other left-wing parties.

Heather Humphreys is a former cabinet minister from Monaghan and has had a poor campaign failing to inspire in her public appearances and facing criticism over the credit union that she previously managed taking legal proceedings over loan defaulting when she was manager. She is a Presbyterian who could help to win over unionists in the North. While Connolly appears to have a substantial lead and is the hot favourite to win, polls suggest there is a significant number of undecided voters, so things could change with polling taking place tomorrow, Friday.

The debates have been very samey, with an array of radio interviewers asking the two candidates the same questions in slightly different ways. And most of those questions were fairly irrelevant to the role of the president, but I guess they have to be asked something!

It seems likely that this underwhelming campaign could result in many people spoiling their vote or simply boycotting the ballot. A very low turnout is now expected with the campaign becoming a referendum on the incumbent Government - and that’s never a good thing for a Government candidate. I have reservations about both candidates and I’m not certainly not alone in that. I can understand apathy when so many people don’t see an option they would really like to vote for.

Last Thursday week's Irish Times Ipsos B&A poll suggested that 49% of respondents did not feel represented by either candidate in the field - a huge figure.

Voters will go to the polls tomorrow, with polling stations opening at 7am. Our democracy has become fragile so use your vote!