A SPAT HAS broken out between two local independent candidates in Dublin’s north inner city after one of them was spotted taking down the other’s campaign poster.
27-year-old candidate Gary Gannon, who is a first time candidate, said he was told about the removal of his poster on Mountjoy Street by a member of the public who took a photo of the incident and sent it to him.
He immediately recognised Gregory independent group candidate and sitting councillor Mel Mac Giobúin who drove to Gannon’s house to return the poster after a confrontational phonecall.
“It’s really disturbing and really sad,” Gannon told TheJournal.ie. “I’ve had my whole family going around for about 15 hours putting up posters and I’ve lost more than 20 so far. I spent upwards of €1,700 euro which is a lot for an independent candidate.”
It’s crazy, I’ve been having a great time knocking on doors and talking to people and then the posters went up and everything got crazy and underhanded.
The offending councillor described the incident as a “misunderstanding” but told TheJournal.ie that he “regrets it”.
Mac Giobúin claimed a cable tie had come off the young candidate’s poster and it was obstructing one of his. He added that one of the people involved in putting up his own posters was “over eager and there was a bit of over-exuberance” in removing it.
“I regret that it happened,” he added. “We should all be playing to much higher standards of electoral etiquette.”
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