Laois General Election backmarkers have no regrets

Politics and especially elections can be bruising but the two lowest-ranked candidates in the Laois General Election field have not been put off and do not regret signing on for a tilt at the Dáil.

Jason Lynch ran as an independent who only declared two weeks out from polling day having never contested a General Election. The Portlaoise native and paramedic garnered 170 number one votes and was eliminated after the first county. 

He commented on the outcome to the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

"Being part of this campaign is definitely one of those times in life where if I didn’t begin now I never would, I mentioned on my statement on Facebook I had many reasons to not run in this campaign, but if not now then when, so I took a leap of faith and put myself forward," he said.

He said the following quote from the quote from Zig Ziglar, an American author and motivator, sums up his "journey".

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

Fianna Fáil added Austin Stack to the General Election ticket on the day Simon Harris called the poll. He was the second candidate to be eliminated after securing 502 number-one votes.

He believes his late inclusion proved insurmountable but he is not done with politics.

“While I am very disappointed at my own vote, I’m delighted for Sean Fleming and the Party. Unfortunately, I seemed to have a lot of number two and three votes in the Portlaoise boxes but they didn’t come into play.

“Coming into the contest so late was a huge disadvantage and by the time I received my election literature, I only had two and a half weeks to canvass the county and this was an impossible task. However for me this was about building for the future and it is my intention play an active role in the community as a volunteer and I will build towards the next local elections to ensure an increased Fianna Fáil representation on Laois County Council,” he said.