Posted online: Jun 12th, 2008

By Elaine McFadden
elaine@letterkennypost.com
Polling stations all around Letterkenny today, Thursday were reporting a very low turn out for the Lisbon Treaty referendum.
At the time of going to press, the average at polling stations surveyed by the Letterkenny Post showed less than 4% of eligible voters had turned out to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’, in the first five hours of opening.
One polling station showed just 3% of returned ballots, while another stated just 16 out of 300 had turned out to express their opinion on the Treaty by lunchtime.
The general consensus from attendees and supervisors at the stations was that progress had been extremely slow and there had been no particularly busy periods, not even from the ‘pre-work’ traffic.
Poor weather, it was suggested by one supervisor, would keep voters in doors until early evening at least, but nationally, the situation was similar.
Stations will remain open until 10pm tonight, Thursday, giving the three million Irish citizens entitled to vote, a total of 15 hours to have their say.
Mean while, early-bird voters in the St. Conal’s Hospital Community Centre area, were left confused this morning when they showed up at Errigal College in Letterkenny, as directed by their polling card.
Due to a systems error, a number of stations in Donegal were affected by this mix-up, according to the Donegal County Council.
Those involved were re-directed to vote at St. Conal’s as opposed to Errigal College and there were no further problems throughout the day, the Council reported.