Kelly left in the dark over ballot paper picture

A LOCAL election candidate has claimed that he could lose votes because his picture is unrecognisable on ballot papers.

Cllr Pat “Bonnar” Kelly is hoping to be re-elected to Bantry Town Council, but says he’s concerned that voters won’t recognise his picture because it’s so dark.

In particular he says people who can’t read would be put at a disadvantage because if they didn’t recognise his name on the ballot they certainly wouldn’t recognise his face, and they might vote for somebody else.

His solicitor, Pat Farrelly, said Mr Kelly submitted a proper picture to the authorities for inclusion on the ballot papers. Mr Farrelly said when the photo was reproduced “it was so dark it was unrecognisable”.

He said all the other pictures of the town council candidates looked fine.

The solicitor said his client offered to pay for reprinting the ballot papers, but was turned down.

“This is unfair, it prejudices him. A few votes could make all the difference. It would only have taken half a day to reprint the ballot papers,” he said.

The solicitor said that if Mr Kelly lost the election by a few votes then they would consider the option of petitioning the High Court to have the result set aside.

Mr Kelly, a 47-year-old, self-employed electrical contractor, said he first became aware of the issue when people who had been given postal votes alerted him to it.

“A number of people phoned me and said they didn’t recognise me on the ballot paper,” he said.

The married father of two, who was first elected to Bantry Town Council 10 years ago, and is a former mayor of the town, is running for Fianna Fáil.

When he saw a copy of the ballot paper he said: “I was gobsmacked. My heart sank when I saw my picture.”

Mr Kelly spent several hours talking about the issue with FF national organiser Sean Sherwin and he’s hoping to speak to Taoiseach Brian Cowen when he visits Bantry tomorrow.