Athlone FF names its local election team

There has been a mixed reaction after Fianna Fáil last week named its election ticket for the Athlone Area of Westmeath County Council.The four sitting councillors; Kieran Molloy, Kevin "Boxer" Moran, Frankie Keena and Tom Allen are to contest next June"s election in the new six seater Athlone Area.There has been a mixed reaction to the announcement as the local Comhairle Ceanntair had recommended that five candidates contest the election. Athlone Mayor Egbert Moran, Cllr John Butler and party stalwart Sheila Buckley Byrne failed to persuade party headquarters to add them to the ticket, as Fianna Fáil veered from the traditional selection conventions, opting instead for the National Constituencies Committee to interview and select candidates.The four candidates will be ratified by the Fianna Fáil Ard Chomhairle in late spring.PRO of the Athlone Fianna Fáil Comhairle Ceanntair, Alanna Keena said: 'The Athlone Electoral Area has been reduced to a six-seater under the recent boundary commission report, so the decision from headquarters is to run four candidates to try and hold on to our four seats.'Cllr Kieran Molloy said he was happy to be selected and said he wouldn"t be surprised if the party added a fifth name to the ticket. He said it would be a difficult election, but said Fianna Fáil had a good record on the council.'Being down to a six seater, the quota will be much higher, there"s one less seat to aim for. It will be difficult to maintain four seats out of six, but we"ll give it a right shot,' he said.Moate-based Cllr Tom Allen is also expecting a difficult election, saying it would be especially difficult for him as he was out on a limb on his own and was unlikely to get any transfers from the Athlone-based councillors. He added that he had also lost some of his area into Kilbeggan under the boundary restructuring.'It"s going to be an uphill battle, but then again every election is. It"s not going to be easy, everything is going against the Government representatives, not that there"s anything we can really do. We put in a lot of hard work in the last few years and hopefully people will see we"ve been working hard and will respect that,' he said.Cllr Frankie Keena said he was delighted to be selected and said it was an honour to be selected again.He said while the four candidates were well placed geographically, he wouldn"t have had a problem if a fifth candidate had been added. Cllr Keena said it would be a tough election and said it would be particularly difficult for members of Government parties given the economic downturn.He said he was now looking forward to the selection of candidate for Athlone Town Council and said he was disappointed that he didn"t yet know his position for the town council.Cllr John Butler, who was not selected to run for Westmeath County Council, said he felt Fianna Fáil was in danger of losing a seat in the Athlone Area because only four candidates were selected. He pointed out that the local Comhairle Ceanntair had recommended that five candidates be selected, but said he would accept what had happened and work towards winning back his seat on Athlone Town Council.'One of the dangers is there will be nobody going over the quota. I went in 1999 and there were only 30 votes between Egbert Moran, Boxer and myself. When I was eliminated the transfers elected all of our councillors. If there no eliminations the votes won"t transfer.'He said if this strategy didn"t play out for the party, headquarters would only have itself to blame, saying the democratic decision should not be taken away from delegates.