THE 460 or so candidates who have put their names forward for election have until noon today to withdraw before they are faced with lodging their deposits of £300 as testimony of their seriousness.
Nominations closed at noon yesterday, but the Department of the Environment, which is responsible for administering the election, will not have a final list of nominations until they are sent in by returning officers. The returning officers will also publish a notice of poll in the local papers.
As usual, the largest number of nominations has come from Fianna Fail, which is fielding 112 candidates, 10 fewer than last time. Fine Gael is fielding 90 candidates, one fewer than in 1992.
None of the other parties is contesting every constituency, although the Labour Party has candidates in all but one, Mayo, where no suitable candidate came forward. It has 44 candidates in the remaining 40 constituencies.
The Progressive Democrats have 30 candidates, 10 up on the last election. They are followed by the Green Party, which has 26 candidates, up seven on 1992.
Sinn Fein is fielding 15 candidates, a big change in strategy from 1992, when it had candidates in every constituency. Democratic Left has just 14, six down on its last outing.
Its former colleagues in the Workers Party have seven candidates compared to 18 in 1992. The Socialist Party has five and the Socialist Workers' Party is also running, although it could not be contacted for details.
Chasing the conservative Christian vote, the National Party is fielding 16 candidates and the Christian Solidarity Party nine.
The Natural Law Party said yesterday it would field 11 candidates.
There will be about 100 Independents, according to a Department of the Environment spokesman. There were 103 in 1992.