Electors omitted from register

Hundreds of electors were unable to cast their vote in last week's election because they were not listed on the newly revised…

Hundreds of electors were unable to cast their vote in last week's election because they were not listed on the newly revised electoral register.

Labour TD Jan O'Sullivan, who was re-elected in Limerick East, said the revised register "is now in a worse state than it ever was and has deprived hundreds of people of their basic and constitutional right to vote". Ms O'Sullivan's comments follow complaints to her constituency office.

Last year local authorities carried out an electoral registration campaign costing €12 million in an attempt to update the live register. The new register contained some 62,000 fewer names than it did in 2006.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said it hopes the issues that arose will have been addressed by the time the next draft register is published on November 1st.

Steven Carroll

Steven Carroll

Steven Carroll is an Assistant News Editor with The Irish Times