Spoiled votes deemed ‘rebuke to political establishment’ by Steen
By Cillian Sherlock, PA
The amount of spoiled votes in the presidential election is a “big rebuke to the political establishment”, Maria Steen has said.
Ms Steen, a barrister and a member of Catholic advocacy group the Iona Institute, came closest of the other prospective candidates to getting her name on the ballot paper but was ultimately unsuccessful.
The mother-of-five, who was a prominent voice among those campaigning for No votes in referendums on abortion and same-sex marriage, received the backing of 18 TDs and senators to get on the ballot paper – two short of the 20 nominations required.
I don't think that the spoiled vote can be taken as a vote for me. There were lots of other issues that people mentioned on their ballot papers, and they should not be ignored
She also campaigned on the No side in last year’s referendums on family and care, which were defeated.
It was observed during the presidential election count that many of those who spoiled their ballots had written in Ms Steen’s name instead of the eligible candidates.
Speaking on Sunday, she said: “The really big story is the spoiled votes. It is unprecedented, 10 times the size of the last spoiled vote count in the last presidential election.
“I think it’s fair to say that it is a big rebuke to the political establishment who sought to prevent any competition in this election.
“I think it’s clear that there are a lot of people in this country who feel unrepresented.”
Speaking to RTÉ’s This Week programme, Ms Steen said she was “really very grateful and humbled” to all the people who wrote in her name.
However, she said: “I don’t think that the spoiled vote can be taken as a vote for me.
“There were lots of other issues that people mentioned on their ballot papers, and they should not be ignored.”
Ms Steen said she “had nothing to do” with the #SpoilTheVote campaign, adding: “I decided that because I was not a candidate, I didn’t get the nomination, that it wouldn’t be proper for me to call for any particular outcome, so I wasn’t involved.”
There were 213,738 invalid votes in the election, out of a total of 1,656,436.
