Munster Express Online

Arriving into the race at a relatively late stage made General Election 2016 a tough race to run for Direct Democracy Ireland candidate Edward Quilty, he says.
The newcomer to politics secured the second lowest of votes – 194 – and took .38% of votes last Friday but says he always appreciated how difficult it would be to make an impact.
“Our strategy was 56,000 flyers to households, a supermarket canvassing and a lot through social media. I didn’t have a full time team behind me like some of the other candidates.”
Despite his elimination in the second count, the social care worker said he feels positive about his vote considering it was his ‘first time out’.
“It was a learning curve, and it’s not put me off politics, I will think of staying in politics in the future. Direct Democracy Ireland is emerging, it’s just difficult that the national media doesn’t recognise us as different from Independents. Just like the Right 2Change movement, we grew out of austerity. It’s still here and so are we.”