Maria Steen has said she is “very grateful and humbled” to voters who wrote her name on the ballot in the presidential election.
However, the barrister and conservative campaigner said she was not involved in the campaign which encouraged people to spoil their votes.
Independent TD Catherine Connolly was elected Ireland’s 10th president in a landslide victory on Saturday, winning 63 per cent of the vote.
The election saw a total of 213,738 invalid ballots, representing almost 13 per cent of all votes cast. Just 1 per cent of votes were spoiled in the 2018 presidential election.
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Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week, Ms Steen, who missed out on required signatures to make the presidential ballot, said the high volume of spoiled votes represents a “big rebuke to the political establishment, who sought to prevent any competition in this election”.
“It is clear that there are a lot of people in this country who feel unrepresented.”
She said it’s time the political establishment “really woke up and started listening to the people, and remember that they serve the people”.
She said she “had nothing to do with the Spoil the Vote campaign at all”.
“Because I was not a candidate, I didn’t get the nomination, it wouldn’t be proper for me to call for any particular outcome.”
One of the members of the Spoil the Vote campaign, businessman Declan Ganley, said at the campaign’s launch that he would be writing “1 Maria Steen” on his ballot paper.
[ Spoiled votes increased presidential election turnout, against expectationsOpens in new window ]
Many of the spoiled votes included the names of Ms Steen and other candidates who failed to secure enough nominations to contest the election.
She said the high level of spoiled votes was not solely related to her failing to secure the 20 Oireachtas nominations required to contest the election, as there were “lots of other issues” at play.
The barrister, who last month secured nominations from 18 Oireachtas members, said there needed to be a “national conversation” regarding the blocking of potential presidential candidates.
She noted that 18 councils nominated candidates in the 2018 presidential election, but that the main parties this time “decided to block” Independent candidates – something she said “backfired”.
Fine Gael had earlier this year directed its councillors to block the nomination of Independent presidential candidates.
“I heard [Tánaiste] Simon Harris making a comment that there were only two candidates on the ballot paper, as if he and others had nothing to do with that,” she said.
“I think there has to be some honesty from politicians.”
Ms Steen didn’t rule out running in future elections.
She said she tried to secure a nomination in this election “to give hope to people that there was an alternative” and to also “encourage others to get involved in politics”.
“I think there is a massive disconnect and people checking out of public discourse and political life, and I think that is a shame for our country.”
