Vote-rigging allegations to be handed to DPP
The Mayor of Thurles, Labour councillor John Kenehan, said he believed there was widespread vote-rigging in the area and that as many as 300 people could have personated votes.
Inspector John Lynagh, who headed a four-month investigation into the allegations, said: “The DPP will determine if any criminal act took place and if charges should be brought against anyone in relation to these allegations.”
Mr Kenehan welcomed the latest development and said he hoped it would deliver results.
“We have to ensure that the electoral process remains above board and that any abuses of the system will be eliminated in future,” he said.
The supplement register of people legally added to the voting register in Tipperary North 15 days before voting show that the Thurles Electoral Area had the highest number of additional voters - 1,133.
The allegations being investigated by Thurles gardaí include:
Dead people on the electoral register voting.
Legitimate voters being refused a vote when they turned up at the polling station because someone else had personated them.
People who were barred from family homes and known to be out of Thurles turning up to vote.
Two people being added to the voting register on polling day against the regulations.
Mr Kenehan said the addition of two people to the voting register on polling day was one of the most serious allegations because the Electoral Act states this can only be done 15 days before voting when the supplement register is published. “But I saw two people being added to the register on polling day after the presiding officer rang a council official in Nenagh to check if it was okay and he gave a verbal go-ahead,” Mr Kenehan said.
However, Tipperary North director of corporate services Paddy Heffernan said the verbal go-ahead was given to make a correction to the register because it was just a typographical error and those people were entitled to be on the register. Mr Heffernan also said no allegations of personation were made on the day and it was very difficult to investigate such claims subsequently.
