'A lesson in how elections should not be held' and 'no attempt' to address cost of living crisis - Leitrim councillor

"We had a very unpopular budget and no attempt to help people on low incomes, with the cost of living," a Leitrim councillor told the Leitrim Observer this week when talking about the 4,828 spoiled votes (12.5%) in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency during the Presidential Election.

It was revealed that commentary of some type was written by 21% of those who did so and 31% of those who spoiled their vote mentioned preferring other candidates not on the ballot. 

Cllr Paddy O'Rourke stated: "It's a lesson in how elections should not be held; after an unpopular budget, fudged candidates."

He continued that "a lot of people were angry about the VAT reduction for the hospitality industry. It's a huge commitment - €619 million and then for people to get nothing at the other end; it was the wrong thing at the time. I'm not suggesting the budget should be fixed to run elections because you can't run a country that way, you have to do what's best at the time."

Cllr O'Rourke continued that another issue was the "debacle of the Fianna Fail candidate; plenty of would-be Fianna Fail supporters were angry about that and some of them may have vented their angry by spoiling their vote."

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He said: "The other issue was the failure to offer Independent candidates and offer a choice. I checked on numerous people who made an allegation that Fianna Fail councillors were whipped to abstain or vote against Independent candidates; that didn't happen in Leitrim. We had no quotes, good, bad or indifferent from headquarters but we still failed, by a number of votes, to give a nomination to Maria Steen. It wasn't a commitment that we were going to vote for her but we were going to give her an opportunity to set out her stall to the wide community."

He said various elements caused "voter displeasure; to be honest, I was amazed the turnout was as good as it was given how indifferent most people were talking about the election."

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly recently said that he was "shafted" in being denied a chance to contest the Presidential Election.

Heather Humphreys was chosen as Fine Gael's candidate without a contest following the withdrawal of Mairead McGuinness from the campaign, something Mr Kelly feels did not reflect the views of the parliamentary party membership. 

Cllr O'Rourke commented: "There was probably discontent due to that in the South of Ireland and there were probably those who had been set on voting for Mairead McGuiness last June but when she wasn't a candidate, lost interest."

He said the spoiled votes show how unhappy many people were with the election. "The fact that people left their home and went to a polling station to deliberately spoil their vote, says something about their anger. It's one thing to be angry and stay at home but to make the effort to go and actually spoil your vote, is another."

Figures indicate an historically low turnout for the presidential election with the final voter turnout for polling stations across the country below 40 per cent in many areas but an official figure will not be known until Saturday.

He concluded: "I'm talking to a lot of people who are fearful about the economy and the tariffs and the impact that that has had."