Record number of spoiled votes cast
"Scam Election. No Democracy" said one invalid vote
Some of the spoiled ballots in Cavan and Monaghan contained vague references to the murder of Ashling Murphy, while others alluded to the alleged sexual assault of a ten-year-old girl in Dublin last week.
So many are they compared to previous elections that a shopping trolley was required to bring them all over to where the votes were being checked and stamped 'REJECTED'.
Phrases like “just going for a run” and “She was only 10 years old” were found on several of the invalid ballots cast on Friday and checked on Saturday at the Ballyhaise Count Centre.
Jozef Puška, a Slovak Romani father-of-five who had lived in Ireland since 2013, was sentenced to life in prison in 2023 after being found guilty by a unanimous jury verdict of murdering Ms Murphy.
A primary school teacher, trad musician, and camogie player, Ms. Murphy was killed in January 2022 while out for a walk along the Grand Canal at Cappincur, near Tullamore in Co Offaly.
Her tragic death sparked nationwide outrage over violence against women, with tens of thousands attending vigils in her memory.
More recently, members of Puška’s family were also jailed in connection with the murder.
His brothers, Marek and Lubomir Puška, along with his wife, Lucia Istokova, were convicted of withholding information from gardaí, while his sisters-in-law, Viera Gaziova and Jozefina Grundzova, were found guilty of assisting an offender by burning Puška’s clothes after the murder.
Regarding the alleged sexual assault in Dublin, a 26-year-old man has since appeared in court facing charges related to the assault of a 10-year-old girl at Garter Lane, Saggart.
The charges are in accordance with Section 2 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990, as amended by Section 37 of the Sex Offenders Act 2001.
Other spoiled votes included one from North Monaghan, which expressed a preference for the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, and several others where voters marked an “X” in all three candidate boxes.
One vote, which also contained an “X” through the candidate boxes, read: “Scam Election. No Democracy.”