‘NO’ SIDE POSTER CRITICISED

THE Electoral Commission has determined that a referendum poster from Independent senator Sharon Keogan, below, contains ‘a factual misrepresentation’.

One of Senator Keogan’s posters called for a No vote this Friday, stating: ‘Don’t force mothers out to work.’

However, Judge Marie Baker, the chair of the commission, said there was nothing in either of the referendum proposals that would force women to either stay at home or go out to work. ‘To suggest otherwise is a factual misrepresentation of the existing text or the two proposals,’ she said.

The judge added: ‘As we enter the final days of these referendum campaigns, An Coimisiún Toghcháin [Electoral Commission] will continue to provide clear factual information for voters.’

The two referendums on whether to amend the Constitution relate to the definition of family, and to care in the home. Senator Keogan stood by her poster, saying she was ‘deeply concerned and taken aback by the intervention of the Electoral Commission’. She said the commission had not contacted her in relation to the matter, and accused it of ignoring two Supreme Court judgments, which she said had relied on the Constitution, as it stood, to reject a suggestion that women going through a divorce could be ‘obliged by economic necessity to seek work outside the home against their wishes’. Senator Keogan added: ‘Many people who oppose the amendments are increasingly worried that the commission’s public statements have been slanted towards a Yes vote.’ Judge Baker said there is ‘huge’ public engagement and that she hopes there will not be a low turnout on Friday.