Coyle saddened by people who do not vote

ERRIS-based councillor Gerry Coyle has said he is ‘saddened’ by the amount of people who do not vote in elections. 

Cllr Coyle hit out at people who criticise politicians over various issues but do not stand for public office.

The Fine Gael councillors made his comments at the Annual General Meeting of the new Mayo County Council, which met for the first time in Áras an Chontae in Castlebar last Friday.

“I want to compliment every single person that put their name on a ballot paper, they weren't just fighting for an election, they were fighting for democracy,” he said.

“They were giving people a choice to vote for them. To put their name on a ballot paper, that's the way to find out how popular they are. Not someone who goes on Facelessbook at night and giving off about people and some daft thing they did wrong, and they think they're great when they get a few likes.”

He continued: “I grew up in an era where you didn't add and delete a friend every night. There were no smartphones or smart TVs, but there must have been an awful lot of smart people. They weren't taken aback by people that will go up and say something about them.”

Cllr Coyle, who received 1,519 first preference votes in the Belmullet Local Electoral Area in the recent local election, said that the amount of people that don't vote ‘saddens’ him.

All six of Mayo’s Local Electoral Areas recorded a turnout of more than 57 percent. Swinford had the lowest, with 57.03 percent, while Westport recorded the highest with 61.94 percent.

“It saddens me very much, that people take it [voting] for granted,” Cllr Coyle said.

“The very people that won’t go out and vote are the people that will tell me how bad things are, and they won’t come out. Then they're able to tell me everything that’s wrong, but they won’t try and change it.”

The Geesala native, who was first elected in 1999, said Mayo County Council should allow voting for people who are out of the country on polling day.

“People that goes on holidays before an election should be allowed to vote before they go out, definitely there should be a ballot box open in all the municipal areas,” he said.

“They live here 365 days a year and they miss out on voting in the election because they’re gone for a few days with their family or they are gone to a funeral in England, or America, or some place. It’s not right and we should try and support them.”