Mary Lou McDonald refuses to rule herself out of presidential run in huge U-turn

Irish Daily Mirror

5 hours ago

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has refused to rule herself out as her party's candidate in the upcoming presidential election.
It marks a major change in position for the Dublin Central TD who, up until Monday, had repeatedly ruled herself out of the race.
It is expected that the party will have a "clearer position" on its plans by the end of July.
President Michael D Higgins will come to the end of his 14-year stint in Áras an Uachtaráin in November.
An election is likely to take place in October but there have been no candidates declared yet.
Ms McDonald has repeatedly ruled out running in the election, saying as recently as March that it "won't be me".
However, speaking outside the High Court in Dublin on Monday morning, she refused to rule herself in or out of the race.
Ms McDonald said: "We have conducted a consultation with the party membership so I now have a report back from that on my desk.
"We have to do a bit more work, roll the process out and I think over the next number of weeks, probably the end of July and into August, we will have a clearer picture of what we are doing.
"As you know, we have been in discussion with other political parties around the option of perhaps a joint candidate, supported by all of us across the left and the combined opposition.
"We don't have clarity, full clarity, on this. It's a moving picture, as you know."
Asked if she was ruling herself out, Ms McDonald declined to do so.
She continued: "Well, we're in this process. We're not ruling anything in or anything out.
"As and when we have news for you around our own process and procedure, and all the runners and riders, I have seen lots of people's names mentioned.
"We're not making any comment definitively on any of them myself."
Ms McDonald's comments come just a fortnight after Sinn Féin Vice President and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill also declined to say whether she would enter the Presidential election race.
When asked at the North-South Ministerial Council in Armagh last month if she would be running for Sinn Féin, Ms O'Neill did not directly say no, despite being asked twice.
She said: "We [in Sinn Féin] haven't completed our own deliberations in terms of the presidential race itself."
When asked if she was considering putting her name forward, Ms O'Neill said: "I am currently working our way through our deliberations as we speak."
Fine Gael, meanwhile, opened its nomination process for the election today.
It is widely expected that it will be a two way battle between current MEP and former GAA President Sean Kelly and former European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness to secure the party's backing.
The nomination window will be open until Tuesday, July 15 at 4pm.
John Carroll, Fine Gael General Secretary, recently told Fine Gael that to be nominated, a candidate needs the nomination of 20 members of the Parliamentary Party, 25 Fine Gael Councillors and five members of the Executive Council.
In the event of a contest, Fine Gael will apply the "electoral college" voting system it uses in other votes, such as to elect a party leader or to ratify programmes for government.
Anyone who has been a member of Fine Gael for two years has a vote.
The membership element of the college is worth 30 per cent of the overall vote, the Councillors' votes are worth 15 per cent and the Parliamentary Party votes account for 55 per cent.