Westmeath County Council Cathaoirleach, Cllr Frankie Keena, has expressed his disappointment that his chosen candidate to fill the vacant local authority seat did not receive the required number of votes to secure a ballot paper nomination.
Cllr Keena afforded his support to female candidate, Sarah Seoige, to fill the casual vacancy on Westmeath County Council, but her political aspirations were dashed on Monday.
“It was an honour for me to nominate Sarah Seoige to fill the casual vacancy on Westmeath County Council and I am disappointed that she did not receive the required six votes to get onto the ballot paper. I do honestly feel that as a young female teacher, fluent Irish speaker and currently deeply involved in community work that she has a lot to offer within the council chamber,” Cllr Keena stated
Despite this occurrence, Cllr Keena noted with enthusiasm that five candidates had expressed an interest in becoming a member of the council chamber.
“I do recall that back in 2016 all the elected members at that time embraced Ailish McManus to fill a similar vacancy which was created following Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran taking a seat in Dail Eireann. There were no other nominations then but on this occasion five potential candidates have expressed interest and they were Sarah Seoige, Irena Djak Cvetkovic, John Tynan, Kevin Boxer Moran and Paul Hogan. It is just fantastic to see so many people interested in getting involved in politics.
“At the moment, the female representation on Westmeath County Council is only 20 percent and I feel this was an opportunity to increase this to 25 percent, but unfortunately the two female candidates putting their names forward did not receive any credible consideration.
“It takes a brave decision to put your name forward for politics and the passion and vision put forward by both Sarah and Irena was very strong. I was taken by the professional, intelligent and sincere approach expressed by both whilst humbly asking for my support. Integrity is a value I hold dearly, and I found these female candidates to be 100 percent sincere and committed,” Cllr Keena commented.
The Cathaoirleach stressed the urgent requirement to have more female representation on both local and national political levels.
“Politics needs people with vision, commitment and a hard working ethos and while Sarah has those strong attributes, she would also bring fresh ideas to the council chamber. There is a serious problem in this country in achieving female political representation. The job can be demanding on family life where family hours have to be surrendered in order to provide a political service at local and indeed national levels.
“Everything is not straight forward to achieve in politics, days of frustration are a regular occurrence and despite serious representations, some decisions are out of your control. Many people are in desperate need and a councillor is there to try and help them without fear or favour.
“I do feel that experience is a huge bonus in local politics, but we have an obligation to encourage others to come forward and contest elections. Sarah was so excited about getting such an opportunity despite knowing how difficult the job of getting a nomination had become. I am genuinely very disappointed that she was not given a chance, perhaps the local elections in 2024 will be her opportunity,” Cllr Keena remarked.
Cllr Keena noted that the criticism aimed at politicians on social media can be difficult to absorb and have a detrimental impact on all family members.
“Social media has made local politics even more pressurising. Constant and easily made criticism very often without context and full facts make the work harder and indeed can be very misleading for the public.
“Further to this and on a point of clarification, I note through Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran’s media campaign that I am tagged as trying to block him. Let’s be clear that as I write this press release, he has never contacted me to look for my vote. Both I, members of my family and indeed my close friends have been berated on this matter following his radio interviews and his press releases. Why is it necessary to mislead the public like this?
“It is said that I am afraid of ‘Boxer’ making a come back into politics, this is far from the truth. I think that it is fantastic that both ‘Boxer’ and former councillor, Paul Hogan, are still showing interest in a return to into politics as well as the three other names mentioned earlier. I wholeheartedly wish them well on their endeavours.
“One can be assured that whenever I contest an election again, I will go to the electorate on the strength of my work carried out as a public representative which I am proud to stand over,” Cllr Keena concluded.
