Ex-councillor asks court to declare poll outcome void

A FORMER Labour Party councillor, who lost his seat on Boyle Town Council in Co Roscommon in last year’s local election, wants the outcome declared void and is seeking to have a fresh poll held.

Boyle Circuit Court heard yesterday that Willie Tiernan was eliminated on the sixth count by just one vote. The court heard that 17 people who were not entitled to vote in the election, because they were outside the town boundary, did get a vote.

David Leach, the Labour Party’s  national organiser, said the error was equivalent to 700 votes in a five-seater constituency in a general election.

Mr Leach described Mr Tiernan as a hard-working local politician who had been the party’s only representative in Co Roscommon for a long time, although he added this was something the party hoped to change.

In his election petition, Mr Tiernan, who had been a sitting town councillor at the time of the June 5th, 2009, election, took a case against returning officer and Boyle Town clerk Eileen Callaghan. The nine elected members of the local authority were also named in the proceedings, but some of those told Judge Michael White they would not be contesting the case, while there was no appearance for others.

Richard Humphreys SC, for Mr Tiernan, said the case was not a fault-finding exercise and there was no question of putting a public servant in the dock. He said under the Local Elections (Petitions and Disqualifications) Act 1974 the issue was whether a mistake or other irregularity was likely to have affected the result of the election.

Counsel  pointed out that on June 5th, 2009, the electorate in Boyle urban area was voting for candidates to the European Parliament, Roscommon County Council and Boyle Town Council.

Judge White heard there had been  a proposal to extend the designated urban area in 2008 but this had not been done before the 2009 election and so a number of people outside the town boundary had wrongly been given a vote in the town council election.

The court heard that, given the constitutional imperative to protect the secrecy of the ballot box, there would be no examination or speculation as to how the 17 people involved actually voted.

Mr Humphreys pointed out that when Mr Tiernan was eliminated on the sixth count he had 87 votes, just one behind Fianna Fáil candidate Doreen Caldbeck, who was subsequently eliminated. The court heard that the total valid poll in the town council election was 1,342 and the quota was 135.

If the 17 votes were excluded, the quota would have been 133, and counsel for Mr Tiernan pointed out that before his client’s elimination, the five elected candidates would each have needed two fewer votes to reach the quota. Therefore  an extra 10  surplus votes would have been available for distribution.

Under cross-examination by Colm Mac Eochaidh SC,  for Ms Callaghan, Mr Leach said there was a very small chance that one of the 17 ballots would have ended up as a spoiled vote, given that the margin of spoiled votes was so small at 0.075 per cent.

The case continues today.