While most students will be finishing off their exams or preparing to go on working holidays abroad over the next few weeks, a number of students and recent graduates will be battling to win seats in the local elections.

An opinion poll published by the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) last month suggested that up to 48 per cent of the electorate aged under 25 may not vote in the European and local elections on June 11th and that 14 per cent are not even registered to vote. Just 9 per cent of the young voters believed the political system encouraged them to participate.

However, there was one encouraging sign for the young politicos - most people under 25 surveyed in the poll said that given the chance, they would be inclined to vote for a young candidate.

The students' union president at Sligo Institute of Technology, Jude Devins, is running for election to Sligo Corporation. He says he finds it difficult to predict what level of student support he'll be able to rely on. "Unfortunately, the vast majority of students studying in Sligo will have gone home or gone abroad by June 11th. Then there are others who wouldn't be registered to vote here yet. "I am hoping to pick up support from young people from Sligo who are studying in places like Galway, Letterkenny, Castlebar and even Dublin, and who'll be back in Sligo in June - but I think people can overestimate the student factor."

Devins, who is running for Fianna Fail, hopes to attract voters of all ages who feel let down by established politicians. "I think the voters are willing to give new candidates a chance. People have lost faith in some of the older politicians. They're looking for someone young and educated to represent them. "At the same time, it's difficult to make your mark as a young candidate. Older candidates have the network and the faith of the party. "My age was more of a factor when I was going for the party nomination than it was when I started going door to door. There was an attitude of `he hasn't served his time' at party level. However, people on the doorsteps are generally willing to give you a chance."

Another Fianna Fail candidate, Malcolm Byrne, is a former USI education officer. Now he's running for a seat on Gorey Town Commission in Co Wexford, and he agrees that established politicians "can see a young person as a threat and seek to ensure you're kept off the ticket.

"I have to say it didn't happen me. My running mates gave me a lot of encouragement, but in other cases it can be difficult for a young person to get through the selection convention. "If you look at the age profile of local authority members, for the most part they're old men, and I stress men. It's important that there's a better balance if local authorities are to effectively represent the whole community."

Byrne also feels that recent political scandals will make the electorate more amenable to first-time candidates. "A lot of voters - not just young people - have become cynical about politics and suspicious of institutions of the State. That could make them more willing to give new candidates a chance." Former Tallaght IT students union president Jason O'Mahoney, who is running for the Progressive Democrats in Rathmines, Dublin, finds older voters are particularly glad to see young candidates running for election.

"I'm running against the Lord Mayor, Joe Doyle. The first time he was elected I was six years old, so in terms of name recognition it can be difficult for a first-time candidate.

But there's a lot of goodwill from the older generation. Old-age pensioners tend to be most in favour of young candidates."

O'Mahoney says USI should direct students to vote for particular candidates and parties in elections so they can make their impact felt on the political process.

"Take UCD, which has something like 17,000 students in total. If all those students were registered, it could have a major effect on political representation in some constituencies. "At the moment politicians don't believe that student unions have the ability to do that, so they only pay them lip service."

Another former student leader who will be hoping to follow up on a strong general-election performance in 1997 is Colm Keaveney, running for Galway County Council and Tuam Town Commissioners for the Labour Party. In the general election, he polled some 3,500 first preferences in Galway East. As a young candidate, he finds that the main disadvantage in comparison with older politicians is the level of resources at his personal disposal. In 1997, for example, he couldn't afford a car. However, he says this helps him understand the frustration of many young people who are "angry and disillusioned" by "the rot that's been inflicted on the political system by the main political parties".

Another former student leader who put in an impressive performance in the general election is Mattie O'Callaghan, who ran in the 1997 general election in Cork South Central in an effort to twist the government's arm to upgrade the then Cork Regional Technical College to an Institute of Technology.

While O'Callaghan didn't get elected, he amassed some 2,500 first preferences, in a campaign that was financed to the tune of £10,000 by his student union. Spice was added to his success by the fact that it was in the Minister for Education Micheal Martin's own constituency; Martin at the time was Fianna Fail education spokesman.

"We made it very difficult for Micheal Martin to ignore the issue. He was confronted with it on the doorstep everywhere he went because we'd raised awareness. "Sometimes I feel we did the dirty work for every IT in the country!" Despite enjoying his general-election experience and having had approaches from a number of political parties, O'Callaghan has decided against running in the local elections. "I was slightly tempted to run - politics can become a bit of an addiction, but careerwise I decided it would be better to concentrate on my job at the moment."

However, O'Callaghan says his 1997 general election performance gives him "a solid basis and foundation to move on for the future".

Elsewhere, the incoming Carlow IT students' union president, Clifford T Reid, is running as an Independent in Athy, Co Kildare; former UCD students' union president Loughlin Deegan will contest the local elections for Fianna Fail in Rathmines, Dublin; and NUI Maynooth science student John Moore is running as an independent for Wexford County Council.

However, National Youth Council of Ireland press officer and former USI officer Eamonn Waters, who created a stir by topping the poll in the 1994 Kilkenny Corporation elections, has decided not to run for a second term.