Moran bows out of election race in Laois
General election candidate and Laois cllr Aisling Moran pictured with her wife Fiona 'Connell at the election count centre in Portlaoise where she conceded she had not got enough votes to challenge for one of the three seats.
FOLLOWING the announcement by the returning officer in the Laois constituency Rory Hanniffy of the first count results in the count centre in Portlaoise, Independent candidate Aisling Moran conceded she had not got enough votes to continue in the race.
Landing on 2,970 first preference votes and weighing up the other candidates votes cllr Moran admitted she could see not see her vote rise to challenge the top performers or reach the 9,570 quota.
Expressing her disappointment cllr Moran said: “I gave it a good rattle. I felt I might have done a little bit better. But despite that I’d really like to thank everybody that voted for me, it was just short of 3,000 people. So, I suppose on the positive side, that was pretty good going for my first time.”
“The disappointment part was that on the doors everybody was saying that they wanted change. But unfortunately they had to vote for it if they had wanted it. The sad part is we’re putting back in exactly the same type government.
“I thought my message had connected, but the bigger parties were saying don’t vote for Independents because they can’t really do anything. That just wasn’t the truth. Independents could hold them to account. We’re not governed by whips. The bigger parties kind of scare mongered saying Independents weren’t going to be any good.”
She said: “It’s my first time out to contest a general election. You’d never know, I might go again. Stranger things have happened. I never say never. I had a fantastic campaigning team. I started out with four of us, cllrs James Kelly, Ben Brennan and Tommy Mulligan and myself. We sat down and by the end of our campaign we had over 70 people around the countryside, hanging posters and knocking doors on my behalf.
“I now go back into the council. I’ll continue highlighting the need for livestreaming of the meetings so that the public can see what goes on and can see exactly how the people they elected are representing them.”
Before concluding cllr A8isling Moran wished all her fellow candidates who had campaigned well, and in particular the three who will be elected to represent Laois in Dáil Éireann.
