THE GARDA Síochána Ombudsman Commission has asked the Garda Síochána to review its investigation into misplaced votes at last year’s European election count for the North West constituency.
The commission has confirmed that it has some “issues” in relation to the original Garda investigation, which was prompted by a complaint lodged by unsuccessful independent candidate and Donegal-based activist Fiachra Ó Luain. As a result, a third investigation is under way.
The original investigation was requested last year by Mr Ó Luain, after a recheck of European election ballot papers at the count centre in Castlebar in June 2009.
The recheck revealed that a total of 3,000 votes belonging to Mr Ó Luain were found to have been bundled with votes for Libertas candidate Declan Ganley.
Ironically, the recheck was requested by Mr Ganley. The new figures did not have an impact on the outcome of the vote.
Mr Ó Luain found his first preference totals rising from 3,510 to 6,510 when the temporarily misplaced votes were included, but he was eliminated after the first count.
Outgoing independent MEP Marian Harkin topped the poll. Former Fianna Fáil MEP and junior minister Pat The Cope Gallagher and outgoing Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins were also elected to the three-seater constituency.
Mr Ó Luain was not satisfied with the subsequent Garda investigation, but has stressed that he was not challenging the final results of the account and said he was concerned with procedures which led to misplacement of 3,000 votes.
In his letter of complaint to the commission, he has claimed that a named garda “completed an inadequate investigation, declining to interview various witnesses, and that he forwarded an inadequate file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)”.
The commission upheld part of his complaint, and initiated an unsupervised investigation under section 94 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005, which was carried out by the Garda Síochána on the commission’s behalf.