WITH less than six weeks to an eagerly awaited selection convention Fine Gael is on the hunt for candidates in the Letterkenny area ahead of next year's local elections.

The party is due to hold its conventions for the Letterkenny Town elections in May and is buoyed up by the growing list of interested candidates. Speaking yesterday (Thursday) Deputy Joe McHugh, the party's standard-bearer in the North East Constituency, said they would be operating an 'open door' policy in the search for the right candidates.

Already at least five potential candidates are emerging for the town council elections while three prominent figures are being sounded out for the County Council ahead of next June's showdown.

For Deputy McHugh the elections are crucial in the Letterkenny because he has no Fine Gael Councillor in either the Town or County Councils. While he topped the poll in last year's Dail elections with over 8,700 first preference votes Deputy McHugh is anxious to put a stamp on Letterkenny and sees the local elections as the vehicle for this process. While party members remain tight lipped strategists are already number crunching as the process to find the right candidates is in full swing. When contacted yesterday Deputy McHugh declined to make any comment on the possible make up of candidates.

However, it is known in Letterkenny the candidates being mooted include well known former taxi driver representative Joe Terry, businessman, Charlie McClafferty, businessman, Mr Josie Murray, former psychiatric nurse Mr P J Hannon, former candidate Paddy Gildea and Tony Gorman, father of well known footballer, Anthony Gorman.

There is also speculation that two people who were prominent in Deputy McHugh's victory in the Dail election are in the frame as potential candidates. Kathleen Deeney, who is a former Chairperson of the Letterkenny Dyslexia Group, and Brendan Delap, a sales representative are being touted as candidates by party activists.

For the County Council elections ex Finn Harps boss Anthony Gorman is being touted as a candidate along with former IFA Chairman, Keith Roulston from the Lagan Valley while moves are also afoot to sound out well known Bonagee man, Bernard McGuinness, a cousin of Fine Gael Councillor Bernard McGuinness from Culdaff.

Fine Gael would appear to be the first party forging ahead with their selection conventions. Other parties are holding their cards close to their chest awaiting a report on a shake up of electoral areas that is currently being considered by a powerful government think tank.

A draft report is due towards the end of April from the Electoral Area Boundary Committee which is currently examining the local electoral structure throughout the country. While a final decision is not likely until at least June 20 there is already growing speculation within political and local government circles that Donegal could be in line for changes.

This includes the possibility that the Stranorlar and Milford Electoral Areas could gain an extra councillor each bringing them from the current three seaters to four. In tandem with this Glenties and Donegal, which are currently six seaters, will come down to five.

Key sources also suggest Letterkenny (five seater) and Inishowen (6) could remain unchanged although there is a feeling with a population of over 35,000 the Inishowen area and Letterkenny hitting nearly 30,000 they are both already under-represented. Sources suggest Inishowen and Letterkenny may be increased with part of the South Inishowen Electoral Area being brought into Letterkenny.

To facilitate the possibility of taking Milford to a four-seater Creeslough could be brought back into this electoral area - the reversal of a decision taken in 1998 to put Creeslough into Glenties.

The Electoral Area Boundary Committee is being led by a former Principal Officer in the Department of Environment. It is charged with examining the current structure of city and borough councils and also county and town councils based on the last census of population in 2006.

It is expected that electoral area boundaries should straddle along similar lines to the Dáil boundaries.

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