HC Deb 18 July 1893 vol 14 cc1821-2
DR. COMMENTS (Cork, S. E.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the alleged illegal practices which are charged as having taken place at the scrutiny of votes for the election of a Poor Law Guardian for the Innishannon Division of the Bandon Union, which was held on the 10th instant; whether he is aware that, amongst other things, it is alleged that the clerk who presided at the scrutiny assumed the right of revising the list of voters without the production of the rate books upon which the names are re- gistered; that he disallowed votes of voters to whom voting papers had been delivered in due course as on the list without reference to the rate books, and allowed votes when it appeared on the face of the papers themselves that they were not properly filled, or were not collected or returned in the manner or within the time prescribed by the rules and regulations, also that his decisions as to the admissibility or the contrary of votes were contradictory to one another; that he disallowed votes on such pretexts as that the voters had taken grazing cattle upon their farms; and that he allowed the votes of persons who neither paid rates, or owned property, or resided within the division; whether similar charges have been made and sustained on inquiry by the Local Government Board with regard to the conduct of a scrutiny by the same officer of the votes at a previous election, and that election was thereupon set aside; whether the Local Government Board proposes to direct an inquiry as to the conduct of the scrutiny on the 10th instant, and whether the charges made with respect to the same are true?

MR. J. MORLEY

The Local Government Board inform me that they are awaiting certain information which has been called for from the solicitor to the defeated candidate. Until they get it and have communicated with the Returning Officer on the subject, it is not possible for the Board to express any opinion of their own as to the correctness of the decisions given by the Returning Officer or as to his conduct on the occasion of the election generally.

DR. COMMLNS

Supposing the allegations are true, what does the Local Government Board propose to do?

MR. J. MORLEY

I cannot anticipate the decision the Board may form. We must await the result of the inquiry.