Will FG and Labour give us a choice?

DESPITE some recent whisperings about potential candidates for the next presidential election, it is my firm belief that the parties are going to have an agreed candidate in Mary McAleese.

Presidential elections occur just once every seven years and to deny the people a chance to choose their president for 14 years is undemocratic.

No one can blame Fianna Fail. After all the status quo is in their interest, but what are Labour and Fine Gael thinking? Can they not offer one suitable candidate each, or have they such little confidence in victory that they would rather not even enter the race.

I cannot imagine this kind of arrangement happening in any other modern western democracy.

My fear is that we have returned to the pre-Robinson era when FF completely dominated the office and more often than not were not even challenged for the position.

The electorate are educated in the ways of politics now and are more than capable of upsetting the status quo, given the chance. Remember the election of Mary Robinson, the loss of all those safe seats at the last general election and the first Nice treaty.

Mark Dillon,

Textile Apartments,

10, Blackfriars Street,

Manchester M3 5BU,

England.