Electronic voting plan suffers setbacks

THE Government’s high-profile campaign to introduce its new electronic voting system suffered several setbacks yesterday after a day of concerted attack from the opposition.

In a day-long onslaught, Fine Gael and Labour pushed the Government onto the back-foot in relation to software testing, the advertising campaign, and constitutional issues surrounding the €40 million scheme.

However, while Junior Environment Minister Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher agreed to withdraw a controversial promotional leaflet showing a voter choosing Fianna Fáil, the senior minister, Martin Cullen, last night dismissed the criticism out of hand. He pointed out that the system had already been used by 400,000 voters without complaint and he had “absolute confidence” in its reliability. He accused Fine Gael environmental spokesman Bernard Allen and his Labour counterpart Eamon Gilmore of engaging in deliberate “politicking” on the issue.