GUIDANCE LEAFLET SLAMMED
SINN Fein councillor Dessie Ward has claimed one of the candidates in last week's by-election was advantaged by a voters' guidance leaflet.
Councillor Ward, the election agent for Paul Gribben, said he was concerned about the guidance leaflet issued with Postal Votes by the Electoral Office on which the names of the candidates had been replaced by a list of colours.
"In any other election this would be fine; however, in this election one of the candidates is called Carol Black and one of the colours used on the mock ballot paper is black," he explained.
"In my view this gives that candidate an advantage over the others particularly when you take into consideration the fact that 203 postal votes have been issued in this election.
"This is enough to sway any election but particularly a local government by-election when the quota is quite low."
Mr Ward confirmed the matter was raised with the Electoral Office.
"However, if they intend to use this format at the next election, at the very least they need to check and see if there is a candidate of the same name and use a different format if necessary. It is important that all candidates enter elections on a level playing field," he concluded.
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Weather for Dromore
Saturday 04 February 2012
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Heavy rain
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