BYELECTION:A CANDIDATE in the Donegal South West byelection has pulled out of the contest.
Independent Ann Sweeney, the only woman among the six candidates, urged the public not to vote for her tomorrow and said the vote should be called off because there would be a general election soon.
The 53-year-old hotelier from Dunfanaghy said she accepted that with the writ moved and the process under way, the byelection would probably be required in law to go ahead.
But she said: “I am effectively pulling out of the contest. I am not asking anybody to vote for me. I am urging people to boycott the byelection as a protest.”
Ms Sweeney said the byelection was now irrelevant and a total waste of money. “A government that has no mandate to be there is going to preside over the most stringent budget we have ever seen in the history of Ireland and then walk out the door. We should be up in arms. It’s an insult to democracy.”
Fianna Fáil candidate Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill (33) said he believed the Taoiseach should have called a general election but he put his country’s interests before the party. Consequently, the byelection was now “more important than ever”.
Labour Party candidate Frank McBrearty shared Ms Sweeney’s call for the byelection to be abandoned and a general election held instead, but he did not urge the public not to vote for him.
The only party leader in Donegal South West yesterday was Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams who campaigned along with his candidate Senator Pearse Doherty.
Mr Adams said it was unacceptable that Mr Cowen would push ahead with a budget and a four-year plan before dissolving the Dáil and calling a general election.