Enoch Burke has endorsed Heather Humphreys for President, describing the “spoil the vote” campaign as “very sinister”.
In a video recorded in Mullingar and released last night, Burke and his mother Martina Burke urged voters not to spoil their ballots in Friday’s election.
Burke, a former secondary school teacher who became a national figure during a long-running legal dispute with Wilson’s Hospital School, said that spoiled votes would help Catherine Connolly. He argued that spoiling a ballot was “a vote for Catherine Connolly, Paul Murphy and everything that they represent.”
He said Connolly represented “extreme left ideology” and claimed she was backed by parties and figures on the left.
“This is all the promotion of extreme left ideology,” he said.
“There is no doubt that Catherine Connolly is the candidate of that ideology in this race, endorsed by Paul Murphy, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party of Ireland, the Labour Party, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats.”
Martina Burke also strongly criticised Connolly’s performance in the campaign and said she believed the “spoil the vote” effort was aimed at undermining Humphreys.
“It’s very, very sinister,” she said.
“These people are appealing to conservative people…to come out and spoil their vote.”
She said Humphreys had been unfairly targeted online for her Protestant beliefs.
“I hear now that Heather Humphreys has been targeted,” she said.
“She has suffered a lot of abuse on social media…because of her religion and her cultural background.”
Martina Burke also referenced Declan Ganley, Maria Steen and Gript Media, pointing out that many of these individuals are Catholic, and argued that calls to spoil ballots would only benefit Connolly.
“I would say tonight, please don’t be deceived by these people,” she said.
“It’s a sad day when Heather Humphreys is targeted because of her religion and because of her cultural background.”
She further claimed that priests had circulated emails encouraging spoiled ballots and said the development was “alarming”.
“Please, people of Ireland, see sense and come out and vote for Heather Humphreys on Friday,” she said.
“Vote for Heather Humphreys.”
Humphreys and Connolly are the final two candidates in the presidential race.
Spoiled ballots are tallied but are not allocated to any candidate and do not count towards the final result.
Campaigns encouraging voters to deliberately spoil their papers have circulated in recent weeks on social media.