Fake democracy - Election gate keepers

In the coming weeks, local councillors will be asked by some of those who wish to contest the presidential election for their support. Unless an aspiring candidate is endorsed by 20 Oireachtas members or four of the State’s 31 local councils their name will not be on the ballot paper.

Though Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors may support a candidate other than the one nominated by their party, however unlikely that might be, the process still makes local councillors keepers of the presidential election gate in what seems a most undemocratic way.