Election fever already hitting Banner County

Political groupings across Clare are said to be on and election footing with two candidates already declared for the contest. 

However interest will be focused in the coming weeks, as Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour prepare to select their strategies and their candidates.

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Competition within the parties is said to be tight with a number of potential runners declaring their interest. 

The election may be a year away but already Sinn Féin has selected Noeleen Moran as its candidate for the contest – while the Green party has officially unveiled Roisin Garvey as their preferred representative here. 

The Labour party says its nominiation process for candidates is continuing here however all nominations must be recieved by the constituency selection board by the end of this month. 

While Renua the country's newest political party says it hopes to run a candidate in every constituency and the selection process will begin before this summer. 

However both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael say no decisions have been made on how many candidates it will run. 

Competition for both of these parties is expected to be tight with interest already expressed in the Fianna Fáil camp from sitting TD Timmy Dooley and chairman of the GAA county board Michael McDonagh and Rita McInerney. 

While Ennistymon Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway has already stated that he intends to run for the Dáil however it's unclear if he will be selected by the party. 

With just under a year before the election has to be held a lot could change before we next vote on a new Dáil.