Irish Examiner view: Race to the Áras yet to grab interest

It is lamentable that some of our major political parties — notably Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin — have, a matter of weeks before the expected date for the election, yet to announce any candidate

Following McGuinness’s standing down, Fine Gael has got its collective knickers in a twist over who should run for President, instead with a national executive committee meeting last night trying to decide the best way forward.

It is a sad state of affairs that the forthcoming presidential election here in Ireland appears not alone to have lost any appeal it may previously have had to the voting public, but also to many of those who initially considered running for the office.

In the last such election here, in 2018, the total of the electorate was 3.4m potential voters. Yet, the contest attracted a turnout of just 1.4m, or 43.9%, which by any standards was a pretty paltry figure.