Seventy-three candidates to contest local elections in Mayo

A TOTAL of 73 candidates have put their name forward in a bid to win a seat on Mayo County Council in this year's local elections.

Candidates had until Saturday to put their name forward for nomination to contest the local elections on June 7 and by the end of the deadline, 73 names had put their name forward across the six electoral areas to win the 30 seats on Mayo County Council.

The most crowded field is the Castlebar Electoral Area where 19 names will appear on the ballot paper with six seats up for grabs.

There will be 15 names on the ballot paper in the Ballina Electoral Area while constituents in the Claremorris Electoral Area will have 13 names to choose from. Nine candidates will contest the election in both the Westport and Swinford Electoral Areas while the Belmullet Electoral Area has the least number of candidates with just eight names on the ballot paper.

All bar two of the sitting councillors will be contesting the local election with Fine Gael councillor John Cribbin in Ballyhaunis and Independent Cllr Seamus Weir stepping down after they both served 25 years in local government.

Fine Gael are running the largest number of candidates with 15 followed by Fianna Fáil with 13; Sinn Féin with nine; Independent Ireland and The Irish People are both running three each; Aontú and The Green Party both have two, while Labour, Social Democrats, The Irish Freedom Party and People Before Profit have one candidate each. Twenty-two of the candidates are classified as non-party or Independents.