Man tries to set fire to ballot box

Gardaí arrested a man who attempted to set a ballot box on fire as he voted in the village of Tang, on the Longford-Westmeath…

Gardaí arrested a man who attempted to set a ballot box on fire as he voted in the village of Tang, on the Longford-Westmeath border on yesterday evening.

The man had collected his ballot paper from officials and appeared to mark his votes. In fact, he had poured petrol over the ballot paper.

He then set the ballot paper alight and attempted to put it in the ballot box but was stopped by gardaí and officials.

There was no damage to the ballot papers in the box or injuries to any of the staff at the pooling booth.

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The man has been charged with public order offences and is due to appear in court in Athlone today.