Ryan Casey, the boyfriend of murdered Offaly teacher Ashling Murphy, has urged voters who ‘still believe in democracy’ to spoil their presidential vote in protest at the exclusion of independent candidates.
Ryan described the election, which has just three party politicians on the ballot, as ‘undemocratic’ and ‘not what the people deserve.’
He reacted furiously to the calibre of candidates after watching Monday’s first televised presidential debate saying it was ‘embarrassing and infuriating to watch’.
Ashling Murphy and Ryan Casey. Pic: Collect
‘This is why Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and so many of our TDs and local county councillors undemocratically blocked highly popular candidates like Nick Delahunty and Maria Steen from getting on the ballot,’ said Ryan on social media.
‘As they would have ripped these three utterly incompetent, unrelatable, shallow candidates to shreds with their common sense, wit, intelligence and willingness to bring to light in the correct manner what challenges we are truly facing as a country and what we can do about it. Unlike these three, they would have coherently answered the questions being asked.’
Ryan Casey. Pic: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos
Ryan urged everyone to ‘have your voices heard’ by turning up at the ballot box on October 24 in huge numbers and ‘spoil your vote’ as a protest to the government for blocking candidates ‘they feared would win’.
Conservative candidate barrister Maria Steen secured 18 of the 20 names required to get on the ballot, leading to widespread criticism and accusations of ‘anti-democratic’ blocking of independents.
Maria Steen at Leinster House last week. Pic: Tom Honan
Ryan Casey said ‘spoiling your vote is far more powerful than not voting at all. This can truly be a statement to government that this year’s presidential election is undemocratic.’
After settling his defamation actions against the BBC over comments made by an Irish Times journalist over his victim impact statement, Mr Casey says he is now free to use his voice again.
Ashling Murphy and Ryan Casey. Pic: Facebook
Ryan’s partner Ashling was stabbed to death as she went for a run in the middle of the day by Josef Puska in January of 2022.
Since Marian Steen failed to get on the ballot, a #spoilthevote campaign has been trending on social media with people urged to write the names of the independents they would have voted for on the ballot paper.