An anomaly in voting procedures that allowed a councillor cast a vote in a Municipal district contest for chairman but saw the same councillor unable to vote in the contest for Cathaoirleach of the full council has yet to be explained by Meath County Council.
Last week councillor Conor Tormey, who is currently hospitalised and recovering from knee surgery, was prohibited from voting for Fianna Fáil colleague Tommy Reilly, who successfully stood for the Cathaoirleach position, as he was not able to attend the meeting in person.
Yet on Tuesday of this week Tormey was allowed vote via Zoom for Fine Gael’s Alan Tobin in a contest with Independent Joe Bonner in a contest to see who would be Cathaoirleach of the Ashbourne Municipal district, and as Tobin won on a 3-2 vote Tormey cast the deciding ballot.
There is no suggestion of any wrong doing but the council have yet to respond to a question from Meath Live asking how Tormey could vote in one election and not another.
One source did tell us, ‘It was decided during Covid that people could vote via Zoom and that decision has not yet being rescinded.’, which is fine but still doesn’t explain how someone could vote in one and not in the other.
