Both Ken O'Flynn, a former Fianna Fáil man turned Independent candidate, and Finian Toomey of Aontú, say some of their posters are "reappearing" after they have been taken down.

Both men believe that some of their posters were stolen during the election and are now being put back up, so they get fined by Cork City Council for not removing posters on time. 

Councillor Ken O'Flynn says that his team had taken down 90% of his posters, but more kept popping up. 

"Even the posters I took down outside my constituency office, more would reappear hours or days later. 

"Someone went out of their way to take down my posters and then to put them back up. 

"They are definitely 'new' posters because the cable ties they are using are different from the ones I used."

Mr O'Flynn says he hopes it is not an act of political malice. "This person has serious problems, I hope they get the help they need. It is bizarre.

"We have two teams taking down posters over the past few days and more went up overnight.

"We are taking down the rest of the posters now and the public has been very helpful in letting me know where some posters have gone up."

The councillor says that he never has experienced an issue like this in recent times. "Two local elections ago I did have a similar issue, but I knew the person who was doing it."

When asked if he believes this is connected to the fact he stood as an independent in this general election, he says "you can draw your own conclusions from that... but I hope it isn't politically motivated.

"I am not going to let it deter me."

Finian Toomey of Aontú says he is experiencing similar problems. 

"This happened to me in the by-election too. I am currently appealing a fine from Cork City Council's litter department in relation to a poster that was put back up by someone after the election.

"I poster personally, and where this poster was put back up, we never had a poster there. It was on Barnavara Hill between Riverstown and Mayfield.

"I know some of my posters were taken down by the National Roads Authority and the ESB, but this was a minimal amount I believe."

Mr Toomey says in each election he has run in, he has had many posters go missing. "I am missing about 180 posters in total. 

"In the local election in May, I had 136 posters and lost six.

"I got 400 more posters for the by-election, so I had 430 posters. I was missing 48 after that election.

"I have most of my posters back now, but we are still missing 180.

"It is an issue. I have used those posters three times. They are expensive to print. 

"We are also a non-government funded party, we didn't receive any state support because we didn't receive at least 2% of the first preference votes in the general election, and it looks like we will be again [not receiving state support]."

"All of our donations and money goes towards paying the bills. 

"The only conclusion is that someone is doing this maliciously. They are putting up posters so we will be fined. Whether its parties or groups of individuals, I don't know.

"It is disgusting that people would go out of their way to do this.

"In a general election, the [elecotrate area] is huge, and the first time you may hear about a poster still being up is through an email or letter about a fine."