Cóir plans to monitor polling and box seals

VOTE CHECKING:CÓIR SAYS it plans to monitor polling in the Lisbon Treaty referendum and the counting of votes to ensure the vote is fair.

The anti-treaty group said its volunteers would count the number of ballot boxes and confirm the number of votes cast in every polling station in the State on Friday, at the end of polling.

These totals would be checked against the total of votes counted the following day in each centre. The group said it would also check to ensure the seal on each polling box will be broken before witnesses at the beginning of the count on Saturday.

Cóir spokesman Manus Mac Meanmain described its approach as a “simple, yet 100 per cent effective means of ensuring the referendum process was free of any error or interference”. He claimed the undemocratic nature of forcing people to vote again on the treaty had prompted many concerned calls to the Cóir office regarding the security of the vote.

There has been a “shocking disregard” for the spirit of funding legislation and court judgments during the referendum campaign.

“Millions are being spent by Yes campaigners and no-one is asking where it came from. The requirement for equal airtime for Yes and No campaigners has been set aside, and the EU Commission is funding Yes propaganda. It doesn’t inspire confidence.”

Cóir has written to the Referendum Commission and the Department of the Environment outlining the actions it intends to take on polling day. It claimed the measures were necessary to ensure every vote cast was accounted for, and that the vote was absolutely free, fair and transparent.

Mr Mac Meanmain also claimed that Cóir’s canvass on the ground was showing that the treaty could be rejected.