Veteran politician can't vote for son in new constituency

IT was quite a surreal experience for Galway Fine Gael duo Paul Connaughton senior and Paul Connaughton junior heading to the polls today (Friday), as the veteran former TD wasn't able to vote for his son.

Despite living a few miles apart and attending the same polling station, the change in constituency boundaries meant that long-time politician Paul Connaughton Senr now resides in the newly created Roscommon-Galway area while his son Deputy Paul Connaughton is running to retain his seat in the Galway East constituency.

The polling station in Mountbellew NS was one of two polling stations in the county where voters may have been confused as there were booths for both constituencies.

Paul Connaughton Junior was first elected to the Dail in 2007 when he succeeded in retaining the seat held by his father for 30 years.

However, the dramatic carve-up of the old Galway East constituency has made a huge impact on his previous vote as more than 2,200 of 2007 first preference votes are now in Roscommon-Galway constituency. There is added pressure to hold on to his TD status as the number of seats in Galway East have reduced from four to three.

Deputy Connaughton admitted that the changes have caused huge confusion among voters with many threatening not to bother voting at all.

“On a personal level the unkindest aspect of all is that my parents, my entire family, friends and neighbours couldn't vote for me,” said Deputy Connaughton.

There was a similar situation further north of the constituency in Dunmore, again where there very booths for Galway East and Roscommon-Galway in the same polling station.

In total more than 20,000 votes have been transferred from Galway East to Roscommon-Galway.