The findings of an opinion poll conducted in the Carlow/Kilkenny constituency were adjusted to favour a Fianna Fáil candidate in the General Election, Labour councillor Mr Jim Townsend claimed last night.
The poll, published in the Carlow Nationalist, showed Co Carlow would not return a TD to the 29th Dáil but that Fianna Fáil's Senator MJ Nolan was best placed to take a seat in the county ahead of Mr Townsend.
It showed, however, Mr Townsend’s Kilkenny-based running mate Mr Michael O’Brien taking the final seat in the constituency. The outcome of the General Election saw Sen Nolan take the last seat after the eighth count, less than 400 votes ahead of Mr Townsend.
Mr O’Brien was excluded after the fourth count with Carlow-based candidates Mr Fergal Browne of Fine Gael and Green Party deputy leader Ms Mary White both finishing ahead of him.
Controversy surrounds the origin of the poll, with Carlow Nationalisteditor Mr Eddie Coffey first claiming it was conducted on behalf of the paper by Bluebird Marketing. Bluebird denied Mr Coffey's claim and he later said a third party passed it to him and that he verified the poll's authenticity with Bluebird.
Bluebird has confirmed taking polls in the constituency but vehemently deny having contact with Mr Coffey. They say for reasons of client confidentiality they cannot discuss their poll findings nor reveal who commissioned them. However, ireland.comhas independently established the poll was conducted for Fianna Fáil around the start of April.
Last night, Mr Townsend told Carlow Urban District Council (UDC) he felt "cheated" by the publication of the "doctored" poll and that he owed it to the voters and his campaign workers to speak out.
"It is quite evident that the turning point in my election campaign came with the publication of the doctored/leaked opinion poll which was published in the May 3rd edition of the Nationalist," Mr Townsend told councillors. "The publication of the poll did me a great injustice - and cost me the seat," he added.
He said the paper should apologise to its readers but that he would not accept an apology as the "damage [could] not be put right".
Before the UDC meeting, Mr Townsend told ireland.comhe had received the findings of the original poll and could identify where the "doctoring" took place.
He said the original figures show a proportion of votes that should have been attributed to poll-topper Mr Liam Aylward were instead applied to Sen Nolan. He also said the figures that applied to himself and his Labour running mate had been switched to show Mr O’Brien would secure a higher first-preference vote, which would mean Mr Townsend would be eliminated first and his transfers would benefit his running mate.
He said the rest of the candidates’ figures remained unchanged but that the poll tampering "scared people away from voting for me".
One of the major issues in Carlow during the election campaign was a fear the county would not have a representative in the Dáil following the retirement of outgoing Fine Gael TD Mr John Browne.
At last night’s UDC meeting Fianna Fáil councillors rejected allegations of "dirty tricks" with Cllr Nicholas Carpenter saying the poll fell within a five per cent margin of error and that it did not benefit his party because it showed they would not take the last seat.
Fine Gael's Cllr Fergal Browne accused the Carlow Nationalistof bias to one party adding the paper had given "the blatantly wrong impression that Carlow would not return a TD".
Mr Browne also said at the meeting that questions arose from an interview on Radio Kilkenny in which Fianna Fáil councillor Mr John Pender denied privately telling the presenter, Ms Sue Nunn, he was responsible for leaking the poll. "There are serious questions in light of the Radio Kilkenny interview where his [John Pender’s] comments were subsequently retracted. But she [Sue Nunn] is adamant he leaked the poll."
Meanwhile, both Ms White and Mr O’Brien are separately investigating the possibility of taking legal action.
Ms White described the poll as "a devastating attack on the rest of the candidates". She also backed-up Mr Townsend’s claim that voters on the doorstep were saying they would switch their vote for Sen Nolan because of the poll, which, she said, resulted in an eight per cent swing to Fianna Fáil.
Mr O’Brien, earlier this week, said he was not yet sure what grounds there might be for recourse to the courts but when asked if he thought a successful action could affect the election result, he said: "if there’s questions over interfering in a general election in a democracy - in the last analysis, that’s a possibility."