A TELEVISION documentary to be aired on Oireachtas TV will give a behind-the-scenes look at the election counts in Cork South West and Cork North West, at the controversial location of the Mallow GAA Complex.
The programme Election ’24 is a one-hour documentary which offers a snapshot into how a general election is staged, looking at different parts of the process, from the Dáil to the election trail, to the count, and finally the first day of the new Dáil.
The programme goes behind the scenes with the county returning officer in Cork, Clonakilty woman Sinéad McNamara, as she and her team prepare for polling day and the count.
The cameras follow Sinéad and her team in Mallow count centre as the fate of the Cork counties’ candidates is decided upon.
The choice of venue proved controversial, being so far from West Cork, with local TDs Michael Collins and Christopher O’Sullivan being among the many politicians calling for any future counts to be returned to Clonakilty.
For some of those based in Beara, for example, it meant a six-hour round trip. Furthermore, the count didn’t finish until almost 5am on Sunday morning, leaving many people with lengthy journeys home, having arrived at the count centre at 9am on Saturday morning.
While the West Cork press – who found the facilities provided at the count centre wholly unsuitable – were never given a reason for the change of location, a spokesperson for the documentary said that Ms McNamara does address the controversial move on screen.
‘Sinead McNamara references the decision and reasoning, but it’s not a focus at all in the documentary, the focus is on the roles carried out by a returning officer,’ they said.
Law student and legal secretary Mahbooba Faiz, who lives in Ireland after escaping the Taliban’s regime in Afghanistan, also gives her view of Ireland’s democratic system as she visited the count centre in Mallow with her family.
The programme will be screened on Oireachtas TV at 6pm on Sunday December 22nd.
