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Spoil The Vote – Kicks off!

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Date: Monday, 13th October 2025

“SpoilTheVote.ie” Campaign Launches to Challenge Lack of Choice in Upcoming Presidential Election

A group of well known Irish political commentators, entrepreneurs, and public figures have come together to launch SpoilTheVote.ie, an online civic campaign urging voters to send a clear message about the state of Irish democracy by spoiling their ballots in the upcoming Presidential election.

The campaign officially launches Monday, 14th October 2025, and will hold a press conference on Friday, 17th October at 2.30 p.m. in Dublin.

About the Campaign

SpoilTheVote.ie was founded in response to growing public concern about the lack of genuine choice in the forthcoming Presidential election.

Recent developments in the nomination process have raised serious questions about fairness, representation, and democratic accountability. Despite widespread public interest in a broad range of candidates, the combined influence of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has effectively prevented alternative voices from securing the necessary nominations.

Through the Oireachtas route, only one independent, left-leaning candidate Catherine Connolly has been permitted onto the ballot, leaving no centrist or centre-right candidate to represent a significant portion of the electorate.

A Strong Democratic Statement

According to the group, SpoilTheVote.ie is not about apathy it’s about principled protest. The campaign encourages voters to attend their polling station, spoil their ballot deliberately, and make their democratic protest visible.

“Your vote is your voice, make it count,” said Elaine Mullally, entrepreneur, businesswoman, and former general election candidate. “When the system offers no real choice, spoiling your vote is a legitimate way to stand up for democracy and fairness.”

The group emphasises that every spoiled ballot is officially recorded, and that the campaign’s purpose is to highlight the growing disillusionment among voters who feel shut out of Ireland’s political system.

Campaign Leaders

Elaine Mullally
Independent Politician, Entrepreneur. 

Eddie Hobbs
Presenter of Counterpoint & Author. 

Paul Treyvaud
Entrepreneur, Chef and Restaurateur.

Aidan Joyce
Technology Strategist & Venture Builder.

Declan Ganley
Entrepreneur and businessman.

Nick Delahanty
Candidate for Presidential Nomination, 2025

Ivor Cummins
Technical Manager, Biochemical Engineer.

Michael McCarthy
Independent Content Creator.

Press Conference Details

Venue: Dublin

Date: Friday, 17th October 2025

Time: 2:30 p.m.

For Media Enquiries

Email: info@spoilthevote.ie

Website: www.spoilthevote.ie

Social Media: X – Spoil The Vote HQ

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Picture of Aidan Joyce
Aidan Joyce

5 Responses

  1. Not living in Ireland I can’t do much to help except wish you well. I had intended to return to vote for Maria Steen and even canvass for her (even thought of returning to cast my “spoilt” vote….well used NOT spoilt really !!).
    Best wises and God bless.

    Reply

    1. Declan,
      Many thanks for your comment, indeed Maria Steen would have been a wonderful candidate, alas we were Robbed!.
      But as you said – Casting a spoilt vote won’t really be a spoilt vote, it’s going to help us send a thundering message to our tone deaf government.
      Stay in touch and doing give us a follow and social media.
      All the best for now.

      Reply

  2. Best wishes with this campaign.

    Our democracy is important & has under assault since 2020 at least. That’s when I noticed it anyway.

    Since then we’ve have ‘government by crisis’, where each crisis is used to emasculate the people & empower foreign bodies & NGOs.

    Government is not listening to the people. It is listening to NGO’s & unelected EU bodies. It’s has adapted WEF stakeholder capitalism, where, it seems, everyone bar the people are ‘stakeholders’.

    We need to pull our democracy back to the people.

    Reply

    1. Hi Kevin,

      Thanks for your well wishes and comments.
      “Government is not listening to the people” – I would go further and suggest that we are being purposefully ignored.
      If history is anything to go by, democracy will revert back to us.

      – UK 1990 “poll tax” → mass protests, policy scrapped, PM out
      – Tunisia/Egypt 2011 → regimes fell after ignoring demands
      – France 2018–19 fuel tax → government forced into concessions
      – Sri Lanka 2022 → protests ousted president amid economic crisis

      The crack are starting to appear – breaking point is not so far away.

      Reply

  3. Very curious to see what the outcome, if any, of this campaign will be. Would it be worth adding a target % of spoiled votes the campaign is aiming for to the FAQ, or what we will be defining as a successful campaign?

    Reply

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