Mellor blasts Fianna Fail decision to co-opt independent candidate: 'I feel totally and utterly betrayed'

ANN CASEY
A FIANNA FÁIL local election candidate said she felt “totally and utterly betrayed” by her former colleagues, who voted against her co-option onto Meath Co Council on Monday.
Lisa Mellor’s 12 Fianna Fáil colleagues voted against her in favour of Amanda Smith (pictured below with Amanda Smith) who had been nominated by Cllr Sharon Keogan to fill the vacant seat in the Ashbourne electoral area which arose from Cllr Keogan being elected in two areas. The Independent councillor opted to take her seat in Laytown/Bettystown, leaving the Ashbourne seat vacant.

Ironically, all 12 Fine Gael members of the council voted to co-opt Ms Mellor who was next in line for a seat in Ashbourne in the local elections last May.
The vote for Cllr Smith was a result of a voting pact for the chair of the council involving Fianna Fáil, some of the Independents, Aontú and Labour.

The FF councillors were accused of sacrificing one of their own for “30 pieces of silver” at a very heated and rowdy meeting of the council on Monday.
Independent Cllr Joe Bonner proposed Lisa Mellor and said Fianna Fáil’s support for Cllr Keogan’s nominee was “a corruption of the democratic process and sets an very unhealthy precedent.” 

'The last five weeks of hell for me'  Full story in this week's Meath Chronicle out now!