This article is from page 8 of the 2012-06-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
SHORTLY after the ballot boxes opened on Friday morning, it was clear that the people of Clare had voted overwhelmingly to accept the Stability Treaty, and there were few if any protest votes among those tallied.
At 2.09pm, Clare’s Returning Officer Patrick Wallace announced that the people of Clare had resoundingly accepted the treaty.
As many as 26,121 people, or 65.7 per cent of the poll, had voted yes the previous day, while 13,613 or 34.3 per cent had voted no. Less than half a per cent of the votes were spoilt.
While the turnout was low, there also appeared to be no orchestrated protest vote against the Government.
Even in areas like Parteen, who are concerned about the proposed Limerick Northern distributory road cutting through their village, there seemed to have been no orchestrated protest vote. The Parteen ballot box opened in Clare showed a tally of 130 for, with 72 against. The second Parteen box was opened as part of the Limerick City constituency.
There was a slight swing towards the no camp in Shannon Town but the yes vote still won the day.
In the Shannon Electoral area, an estimated 61 per cent of voters voted for the treaty, with 39 per cent voting against. According to the tallies, there was one “no box” in Shannon Town. However, the tallymen and women missed a box and a half of votes from St Aidan’s School Ballycasey. It was estimated that the town voted 54 per cent in favour of the treaty and 46 per cent against, which made it the lowest yes vote in the county.
In total, the joint tally between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil accounted for 78 per cent of the boxes. Despite missing a few boxes, the tally was still within one per cent of the overall result, predicting a yes vote of 64.8 per cent.
The north Clare area was the biggest supporter of the treaty, according to the tallies. As many as 67.8 per cent of people in the Ennistymon Electoral Area voted in favour of the treaty, with both Ennis electoral areas returning a joint yes vote of 66 per cent.
Kilrush Electoral Area returned a yes vote of 65.5 per cent, with Killaloe Electoral Area supporting the treaty by 64.73 per cent.
Shannon Electoral Area had the lowest yes vote, but still voted in favour of the referendum by a margin of 61 per cent to 39 per cent.