Lads, does anyone know the law on candidates being within 50m of a polling station?
I understood it to be that candidates and canvassers may not come within 50 metres of the entrance to polling stations from 90 minutes before voting begins and they must not attempt to make any appeals to voters as they enter polling station.
At 6:30 yesterday evening, I saw a Fianna Fáil candidate in the carpark of the local school. Now I can’t say whether he entered the building or not, but I did see him within about 10m of the door. It was not the station where he would be casting his own vote. What business would he have there? Checking on the turn out? Surely he should have remained outside the 50m limit and dispatched his driver to do this.
Should I report him? What do you think? Okay, I am biased here as his son got extremely aggressive with me the day before when I pointed out the sign he and his father were erecting was damaging an area of ground the Tidy Towns volunteers had put so much hard work into. I genuinely thought he was going to pull on me.
Update: The useless witless eejit got elected. This county’s electorate are pure fekin mule! I give up.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Addictions Advertising Back to school Banks Blogs Builders Characters Charity Commentary Crappenings Driving Economy Education Environment Estate Agents FAQ Farming Friends Fun Gaeilge Gardaí Guest blaggards Health HSE Immigration Internet Irish identity Jokes Kids Kildare Law Life Literacy Local Media Mothers Movies Neighbours Occasions Painting Pet Hates Pets Photgraphs Photos Plonkers Poetry Polish Politicians Politics Pubs Pub talk Racing Radio Relatives Religion Science Shopping Snippets Spam Sport Tech stuff Time Transportation Travel Travellers TV Uncategorized Weather Wildlife Women Work
For God’s sake don’t report him.
He could be arrested, and they would have to rerun the whole bloody thing. Could you take five more weeks of bullshit and other crap, knowing it was all your fault?
As for the son - have you thought about knee-capping?
I think they’re just not allowed canvass within 50 metres, or have canvassing material within 50 metres. So if he’s not holding up a big poster or yelling at people “vote for me” I think he’s allowed be there. Could be wrong though…
Good advice, Grandad. Thanks. And good advice on the son too.
That could be it, Caro. Actually this particular
candidatehalf-eejit should not be let within 5km of Daíl Éireann. If he’s elected, then I’ll have lost all faith in the Irish electorate.Primal, you’d be wasting your time if you report him because it will be your word against his. He’ll raise the issue of the signage and say that you have it in for him or something stupid. It sounds like a headache waiting to happen.
How’s it all going over there? Is Bertie in for another 5 years?
Medbh - As it turns out, I didn’t take Grandad’s advice and did report him. Well, I tried to. I rang the Council offices and asked for clarification as per Caro’s reading of the law. I made the mistake of giving his name too early in the conversation. Suddenly the Council official became very cautious - he’s a sitting Councillor after all. I would have “to appear”, “make a statement”, blah, blah, blah. I hung up. I’m turned chicken. Mea culpa, mea culpa. I will probably regret this later.
Yep, Sam, Bertie for another five. It’s not obvious yet who his bedfellows will be though. As long as they are the good watchdogs the PD’s promised to be, but didn’t deliver the last time, I’m okay with that.
Update: The useless witless eejit got elected.
You should have shot him.
It’s legal to shoot a candidate within 50m of a polling booth,
not in the old days, not in the old days. Ah how i miss em
He’ll be higher profile from now on, Bock. Easy target.
The old days will all come back to you one day, Manuel. It’s called senility.