Green Party candidate Karin Dubsky pulls out of election race in Wexford
The Green Party’s general election candidate for the Wexford constituency has pulled out of the race.
Karin Dubsky, a well known environmental activist, had stood for the party in the by-election in Wexford last November, but had been reluctant to stand again in the general election.
She hadn’t put her name forward for the party’s selection convention but when it appeared that there was no other candidate prepared to stand she agreed to go forward.
Ms Dubsky had begun canvassing in Gorey on Thursday and had also organised for election literature to be printed.
However, on Friday she told the Irish Examiner that her situation had changed overnight and for personal reasons she will not now be standing.
Her departure will be a blow to the Green Party which expected her to do well based on her own standing and the possibility of a so-called Green wave.
Ms Dubsky has been the driving force behind the environmental group Coast Watch for nearly 30 years and had resigned from the organisation last week in order to contest the election.
Over the years she had been approached by most of the political parties, including Fine Gael, Labour and the Progressive Democrats to stand but always maintained she was not interested in parliamentary politics.
She said that she agreed to stand for the Greens initially because “the situation has changed with climate change” and she felt she could make most impact in a legislative assembly.
She came sixth in the November by-election with 6.2% of the vote.
Fianna Fáil’s Malcolm Byrne won the seat with 31.2% of the vote.
However, she was expected to be in the shake-up for the last of the five seats this time around.
