Roscommon-Galway constituency delivers resounding double No vote in Government referendums

The Roscommon-Galway constituency has returned a resounding No vote in both the family and care referendums.

In line with national trends, the people of the constituency, which comprises County Roscommon and a part of East Galway, strongly rejected the proposed changes to the Constitution.

In the family referendum, the Government’s amendment was rejected by 74% to 26%. 21,173 people voted no while 7,441 people voted yes.

The total valid poll in this family referendum was 28,614 while there were 333 spoiled votes.

The care amendment was rejected by an even bigger margin with 77.98% of the electorate voting no. That equated to 22,293 no votes cast compared to 6,295 yes votes.

The total valid poll in this care referendum was 28,588 while there were 361 spoiled votes.

The total electorate was 66,184, with a turnout of 43.7%.

No tallies took place over the course of the day at the count headquarters in the Hyde Centre in Roscommon Town. However, from early on, snapshots of many ballot papers were indicating a strong no vote.

Just a sole public representative, Independent councillor Kathleen Shanagher, made an appearance at the count centre over the course of the day.

Cllr Shanagher believed that people were not happy at all with the wording of either referendum.

The results were formally announced by Returning Officer Mary Raftery.