A MAJOR issue has come to light with the ballot papers in the Limerick City constituency as voters went to the polls in General Election 2024 today, and it could possibly render the whole election in the constituency void.
Electoral law states that candidates must be listed on the ballot paper in alphabetical order, but voters in Limerick City were asked today to cast their votes in order of preference on a ballot paper which put Sinn Féin’s Maurice Quinlivan and Dean Quinn (The Irish People party) ahead of Willie O’Dea (FF) and Elisa O’Donovan (Social Democrats), who come higher up in an alphabetic run.
Candidates who believe their finishing position after the count could be adversely affected by the mistake could be entitled to demand a re-vote.
Outgoing Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea heard of the mistake for the first time when contacted by the Limerick Post this Friday evening and said he was “stunned”.
“A number of people said to me my name was quite far down the paper, but it was a busy day and I didn’t see the mistake,” Deputy O’Dea said.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable and I will be demanding to know on Monday who was it drew up the ballot layout and how this happened.”
The veteran Fianna Fáil politician agreed that the issue could overturn the election if taken to task.
If any candidate suffers as a result of a maring of several hundred votes, it is entirely likely that the result will be challenged on the grounds of the paper being wrongly drawn up.
Meanwhile, Deputy O’Dea also described as “a disgrace” the fact that many voters on the northside of the city failed to receive their voting cards.
“Half of the northside were left without any cards and people contacted me to say they went to the polling booths with ID to discover they were not on the register at all,” Deputy O’Dea alleged.
“It’s everyone’s democratic right to vote and it’s a disgrace that this could happen. I will want to know who is responsible.”
Speaking on the issue tonight also, outgoing Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan that said “the whole election has been a fiasco, from the polling cards not arriving out to thousands of homes at all, and arriving very late in areas like Southill, only yesterday (Thursday)”.
“A lot of people don’t understand they can vote without a polling card, and I’ve tried my best to alert people today, but that’s not my job, they should have been delivered much earlier than they were, and it’s been an absolute scandal,” said Deputy Quinlivan.
“The fact ‘they’ can’t get basic things right, like the alphabetical order of the candidates is an absolute scandal, and it is simply not good enough – this is a ridiculous situation to be in,” he said.
The Sinn Fein politician who topped the poll in the constituency in 2020 with 23.86 per cent first preference votes said he did not know if a revote would have to occur, “we’ll have to wait and see what the outcome of any legal challenges are to this, if there are legal challenges to this”.
“I assume it will be up to the returning officer, unless the courts intervene before 9am on Saturday morning, when the returning officer has to start the opening of the ballot boxes.
“Obviously we are all going to be waiting on this. All of the candidates have worked really really hard for the last number of weeks to win as many possible votes, and our campaign teams are pretty tired at this stage, and to have this hanging over us now is simply not good enough.”
Deputy Quinlivan said candidates “need clarity on this…it’s probably better to get clarity rather than having to having challenges later on”.
“My understanding is that there have been very few electoral challenges in Ireland and I hope there isn’t one here in Limerick – but I would rather have clarity now than having this over us for a longer time,” he said.
“At the moment I’m not minded to do any challenge, but a challenge might be made because it might suit us to have clarity, as opposed to have this hanging over us, and that might suit other candidates as well, just to have clarity.
“And the returning officer would know, with a bit of legal certainty provided by the courts, before we open the ballot in the morning at 9am.
“There is a High Court judge available 24/7,” added Deputy Quinlivan.
Limerick City and County Council was contacted but directed media queries to the Court Service, which directed the queries to the returning officer for Limerick.
Exports were made to contact the returning officer by telephone and by email, along with a number of other candidates in the constituency.
Additional reporting by David Raleigh.
