A Mayo View: The imminent election that's scaring the hell out of political parties

Such has been his outstanding performance in the role that the Irish public would happily leave Michael D. Higgins in the role of president of Ireland for as long as he wished.

But established procedures dictate that his time is up and the nation is facing a presidential election in November for which few, apparently, have an appetite.

That's certainly the case with the three major political parties, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Fèin, whom have not yet selected a candidate between them.

In fact, of the three, only Fine Gael seems to have a range of solid options.

So why has the party not taken the initiative of selecting its candidate early rather than pushing it out as late as possible?

Speaking on national radio in recent days, party leader Simon Harris said a long campaign was not palatable to candidates.

This is probably to do with the fact that previous campaigns has resulted in contenders being subjected to the fiercest of scrutiny, particularly on social media, that many would have described as being over the top.

However, such an eventually is unlikely to be avoided by political parties leaving it as late as possible to roll out their candidates.

In fairness to Fine Gael, the party looks best placed at this point to have the strongest potential contender in former European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness.

Fianna Fàil, for its part, has not contested a presidential election for almost three decades and may well sit out this one too.

Such a move would be widely perceived as a declaration of support for the selection made by Fine Gael, their partners in government.

In those circumstances, the McGuinness campaign is likely to become a referendum on the government's abysmal performance to date on the housing crisis.

That leaves Sinn Fèin in a bizarre situation whereby it may not be able to exploit a golden political opportunity if it does not have a really strong candidate to take advantage.

So, as you can ascertain, it is very much an election campaign littered with minefields ready to blow up in the face of those who make the wrong move.

No wonder the election is scaring the hell out of our main political parties.