29 May 2024
By Tony Forde
tony@TheCork.ie
Nominations closed for the 2024 Clonakilty Mayoral Election at 5.30pm last Saturday evening, and three members of the Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage Mayoral Sub Committee met at O’Donovan’s Hotel, where the sealed nomination papers were opened and contents recorded. In total, 24 nomination papers had been printed and made available over the previous 10 days for members of the public to nominate themselves or others. In the end, 17 papers were returned by the deadline.
PHOTO: Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage Mayoral Sub Committee members, Tomás Tuipéar and Jerome JC O’ Sullivan, going through the nomination forms of candidates last Saturday. (Photo taken by Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage PRO, who was the third member of the Mayoral Sub Committee present).
It transpired that a number of candidates had been nominated more than once, and when all was done and dusted, a total of 11 potential candidates were recorded as being eligible to be on the ballot paper to contest the election on Saturday 8th June 2024. However, each of these will be contacted during the week to verify that they had nominated themselves or agreed to be nominated by a third party, and anyone nominated can withdraw their name from the contest up to 12.30pm this Saturday 25th.
For that reason and to respect the privacy of all candidates nominated, their identities or any other details will not be publicised by the Mayoral Sub Committee, until after 12.30pm on Saturday.
At this point, the full list of candidates – as they will appear on the ballot paper, will then be publicised by the sub-committee.
This of course does not preclude any nominated candidates from publicly declaring and making their own announcements and some are already known and are actively canvassing.
The reception staff at O’Donovan’s Hotel were thanked for their co-operation and efficiency dealing with nomination queries and distributing and accepting nomination forms.
Updates will be posted on the Clonakilty Mayoral Council and the Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage Facebook pages with news of the Mayoral Election campaign.