Mayo ban on election posters is very unfair on new candidates

by Caoimhín Rowland

Election season is getting closer to fever pitch.

It’s already looking like a different campaign to ones we have seen in the past. Indeed without knowing the results, which may be a shock, the run-up to voting is already somewhat unusual.

Community groups across the county have bandied together, vilifying election posters; incumbents also agreed in a non-binding resolution to forego transplanting their faces on poles ahead of June 7.

Tidy Towns committees had been angered, some reported being deducted points due to the messiness and stray cable ties strewn across lamp posts after the campaigns finished, resulting in precious votes lost on the tallybook of SuperValu judges.

Often politicians lost favour erecting signage across the county, obscuring exits and angering motorists.

Yet I feel the accessibility of posters for emerging candidates, less monied and independent politicians has been lost in the debate.

Instead, there is a new trend.

Car detailers and panel beaters across the land are making a killing - painting, plastering and placing politicians' faces and names onto jeeps, vans and any vehicles.

Several sitting councillors and MEPs in particular have had their faces touched onto the bonnets and rear ends of campaign motors.

In an era of increased awareness over reducing travel emissions, the new emergence of campaign vehicles, not totally brand new of course, but increasingly common, sets a potential pitfall many may encounter in this social media age when a snap taken out of context can draw ire from potential voters online.

Drivers of these cars will have to be canny and ensure they never parked in a disabled bay, on a footpath or heaven forbid in cycle lanes.

New faces will emerge from campaign cars and out of the ballot boxes in June.

Without a doubt a sea change is afoot and councillors will be licking their wounds and reflecting on where it all went wrong. Posters or parking will be unlikely to get the initial blame but the narratives expected will be fascinating to speculate upon.

Fine Gael members have an easy excuse. The party has been in power for a generation, albeit out of office locally.

This will be a presidential local election, however. Characters will be lost and new ones created in each of the municipal districts. Last time out it was a poor showing from Fine Gael, but this time around they mean business.

The 2019 local elections was the story of Sinn Féin losing out, an emergent Mark Duffy and Fianna Fáil adding to their bill.

The latter party will have an open goal of an excuse and expect it to be directed towards their leader, Micheál Martin, the greatest leader of Fianna Fáil Fine Gael ever had.

Votes will be chipped away to Independent Ireland, Aontu and a plethora of scattered Independents.

Manoeuvres seem to be afoot within Fianna Fáil since the Ard Fhéis. Stephen Donnelly is currently rumoured to become the next EU commissioner. The Harvard educated politician previously left the Social Democrats. Maybe an allyship of bland, faceless technocrats seems apt for the Wicklow man.

An inspiring lesson of failing upwards for us all to carry into our daily lives, perhaps!

Martin may survive ‘til the general election next year, leaving Michael McGrath and Darragh O’Brien as the top men in Fianna Fáil.

Fianna Fáil failed to reinvent themselves since the crash, only in 2024 they are facing real competition and in an era when they have cobbled a coalition with the old enemy.

Haughey’s corruption voters accepted, Bertie brown envelopes and Cowan’s crash were eventually forgiven but getting into bed with Fine Gael may well prove fatal.

Councillors on the ground are sensing it, the referendum showed this and now only votes tallied are left to confirm it.