Political antics during election 'an embarrassing charade'

Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan has described the outcome of the Presidential race as “one of the most emphatic displays in a generation of stroke politics gone wrong and a humiliating outcome for both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael”.

She said what was witnessed was "the public registration of unprecedented levels of disgust at the obstructionist tactics engaged in by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail".

She said: "as a result, almost the entire process has been emptied of integrity".

“You would hope that this embarrassing charade would make the government parties sit up and take notice. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that, however. What we will see is the establishment, following a suitably face-saving period of faux humility, eventually retreating to its entrenched view that democracy belongs to them with a substantial proportion of the people being nothing more than a nuisance to their agenda.”

“There is no defending this fiasco. The spoiled vote percentage reflects the backlash from a thoroughly infuriated electorate that felt locked out of this process right from the start,” concluded Deputy Nolan.