PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL KEVIN Sharkey has said that he is seeking clarification on why he wasn’t invited to Waterford yesterday to pitch for a nomination alongside other potential candidates.

Senator Joan Freeman, Gavin Duffy and Patrick Feeney all addressed Waterford City and County Council yesterday asking councillors to nominate them to run for president.

To get on the ballot, a person must have the support of four local authorities or 20 members of the Oireachtas.

Donegal artist Sharkey has made no secret of his interest in running for the Áras and told Ocean FM this afternoon that he had written to Waterford councillors seeking to address them.

Despite this, Sharkey said he received no reply and does not know why he was excluded, adding that he almost went along anyway.

“I’d written on two occasions to Waterford to ask them to invite me along when the day came. And I was very surprised yesterday morning to find out that it was all going ahead and I hadn’t received any email or confirmation that my emails and messages had been received.”

So I’ve been on the phone all day and I’m trying to get to the bottom of it and I’m hoping that it’s an administrative error, which is possible. However, I’m very keen to get an actual explanation as to why I was excluded.

“I was almost going to go all the way to Waterford, but then nobody wants to go to a party they weren’t invited to and it’s long way to go if I haven’t been listed.”

Sharkey went on to claim that some people within the media will not take his candidacy seriously, something he said he finds “sinister and disappointing”.

“Looking across the media spectrum, I’m finding that there are certain newspaper outlets who refuse point-blank to ‘A’ mention my name and ‘B’ to take me as a serious contender.”

“That’s very unfortunate because in the democracy we live in I qualify in exactly the same way as the other candidates do to be considered for nomination.”