Fine Gael councillor brands spoilt vote campaign ‘despicable and disgraceful’ as Mayo reports 6,000 spoilt ballots in first count
In County Mayo Catherine Connolly trumped Heather Humphreys by more than 16,000 votes.
The results from first count saw Ms Connolly gain 28,039 votes to Ms Humphreys 11,957. Jim Gavin received 2,596.
The focus at the count centre in Castlebar has shifted towards the high number of spoilt ballots, with a total of 6,311 invalid votes.
Fine Gael councillor Ger Deere condemned what he called an orchestrated campaign to spoil votes, describing the movement as "despicable and disgraceful".
"We fought so hard to get the right to vote, what's the point in spoiling a vote?” he asked.
"Politicians don't get everything right, but I'd like someone to explain to me what the point is in having a spoilt vote, what does it serve? It will achieve nothing."
Turning to his own party's performance, Cllr Deere said Fine Gael's campaign had faced challenges due to what he described as an anti-government climate.
"It didn't work out. The people have decided that Catherine Connolly is the best fit for the President of Ireland, and that's democracy. But the spoilt vote campaign that is not part of democracy, I thought that was despicable and disgraceful,
"We put up a candidate, [ran] a good campaign. I think Heather was against it as well. There is a bit of an anti-establishment, anti-government mood at the moment; people are a little angry, maybe with the Budget - she had to deal with all that.
"She was part of a Government, we've been in power for 14 or 15 years. Catherine Connolly didn't have to deal with that; she hasn't been in Government, hasn't had to make hard decisions over the last number of years.
"In 2011, when Enda Kenny took over as Taoiseach, the country was on its knees, and we brought it back. We had to make a lot of tough decisions. We are probably being punished for doing that, and Heather was part of it.
"We are proud of her as a candidate; she put up a great campaign, but the people have spoken."
Cllr Deere wished Catherine Connolly well in her new role and said she would make "a fine President."
"We have to be proud of Heather, we put up a candidate and Fine Gael will always be part of democracy," he said, adding that lessons would be learned.
"In the next election, I think there'll be a lot of lessons to be learnt for all political parties."
Fine Gael's Thomas Garvey echoed this and dismissed claims that the party prevented other potential candidates from running in the presidential election, saying Independent representatives "have a lot to answer for."
"There was one myth out there. We didn't deter any candidate from going on the ticket,
"If I were a councillor, I don't know if I would have been in favour of any of the other candidates, like Conor McGregor or Maria Steen, running for the Presidency,
"But we have lots of Independent people in the Oireachtas and lots of Independent councillors all over Ireland - I didn't see them coming out in favour of any of the other candidates.
"I think the Independent people in the Oireachtas have a lot to answer for there."
Mr Garvey added that Fine Gael should take time to reflect.
"It is not a day for hasty decisions, people are talking about leadership and so on. Let's go back and look at things."
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.