Ballot paper competition rightly makes for wide-open competition

Presidential elections are that rare example of turkeys voting for Christmas, in the sense that except for a single bird destined to nest in the Áras, the others will be roughly stuffed before being roasted.

A healthy process that underlines the durability of the Constitution, inspired by a now largely derided de Valera, is again destined to give wide choice. That’s good for democracy. And it’s also a good comeuppance for the institutionalised who had an aversion to the prospect of the incumbent being challenged.

In the heyday of the now defunct two-and-a-half party system, effectively only two candidates could emerge. Each represented tribal civil war politics. The electoral reversal of fortune for the two larger parties leaves open not just the certainty of Sinn Féin fielding a candidate but also the clear possibility still of independent Oireachtas members doing likewise.