Mr Nicky Kelly, a defeated Labour Party candidate in the Wicklow constituency in last year's general election, got High Court leave yesterday to bring a petition challenging the Wicklow election result.
He claims two of the successful candidates, Fianna Fáil's Joe Jacob and Fine Gael's Billy Timmons, exceeded the election spending limits.
The challenge comes within 24 hours of leave to bring a similar petition being granted to Independent candidate and disability rights campaigner, Ms Kathy Sinnott, who is disputing the election result in Cork South Central.
Mr Kelly, a former chairman of Arklow town council and a member of Wicklow County Council, said Mr Jacob was deemed elected on the ninth count. On the 10th count and after a number of recounts, Ms Mildred Fox (Independent) was elected, her vote having exceeded Mr Kelly's by 19 votes.
Also elected earlier were Mr Dick Roche of Fianna Fáil, Ms Liz McManus of Labour and Mr Billy Timmons of Fine Gael.
In an affidavit, Mr Kelly said that, under the 1997 Electoral Act, as amended, each candidate had a financial limit that they might spend during election time. In the case of a five-seat constituency, this was €38,092. His own spending was within the limit.
The legislation provided that a report of the expenditure of all candidates in the election be placed before the Houses of the Oireachtas. It appeared from the report that Mr Jacob had exceeded the limit by €10,000 and Mr Timmons had exceeded it by about € 3,000.
Mr Justice Peart granted leave to present the petition.