In a somewhat disappointing turn of events, Time Magazine have announced a controversial eight-person shortlist for its annual ‘Person of the Year’ title. Last year the award was scooped by fighters against the Ebola virus for their sterling work, but this year it could be an entirely different story.

Person of the Year (called Man of the Year until 1999) is an annual issue of the United States news magazine Time that features and profiles a person, group, idea or object that “for better or for worse…has done the most to influence the events of the year”.

The chief of ISIS terror group Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and Republicans’ US presidential candidate Donald Trump are among the eight people to make the final list – something that has raised some ire with certain sections of the public.

Speaking about the Al-Baghdadi nomination, the magazine said, “As leader of ISIS has inspired followers to both fight in his self-declared caliphate of Iraq and Syria, and also stage attacks in countries like Tunisia and France”.

About Mr Trump, Time Magazine said that his populist rhetoric has made him the frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential candidacy and stirred debate about the party’s future.

Past winners of the award include inspirational men such as Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, but the competition has also given equal airtime to those figures who were downright evil. Adolf Hitler and Ayatollah Khomeini won in 1938 and 1979 respectively – just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. Now it seems that Al-Baghdadi and Trump could join the ranks of those less distinguished men to walk away with the prize.

The final list also includes ‘Black Lives Matter’ activists, German chancellor Angela Merkel, Iran president Hassan Rouhani, Russian president Vladimir Putin, transgender reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

Speaking about controversial Russian supremo Putin, the magazine said he “Has defied Western sanctions over his country’s military activity in Ukraine to play a critical but precarious role in the war on ISIS”.

Personally I’d quite like to see the ‘Black Lives Matter’ activists win, purely because the rest of them are either abhorrent or fairly boring. But sadly my mind was cast back to the premise of the award, to recognise a person, group, idea or object that “for better or for worse…has done the most to influence the events of the year”. Looking at the list again, it seems that America’s answer to Adolf Hitler or a terrorist may be crowned winner. Dark days indeed.