The bomb disposal team outside the Templemore Sports Complex election count centre in May 2010.
Arrangements put in place for this month’s election count in Derry will remove the “normally family friendly” atmosphere of previous counts, it has been claimed.
Cllr Paul Fleming, Sinn Fein group leader on Derry City Council and who is seeking re-election in 22 May local government election, has called on Council management to review the arrangements that have been put in place for the election count to take place at Templemore Sports Complex on Friday and Saturday, 23 and 24 May.
Councillor Fleming said: “Some of the arrangements that have been put in place around the election count process will take away from the normally family friendly atmosphere that has always been part of election counts in Derry.
He concluded: “I would therefore urge Derry City Council management to review the arrangements that have been put in place.”
Cllr Paul Fleming.
Stricter security measures are being introduced this year as the result of the attempted bomb attack when the count was last held in the Complex four years ao.
A taxi which had been hijacked in the Hazelbank area had a pipe bomb placed in it and the driver ordered at gunpoint to drive it to the count centre in May 2010.
The alert forced the building to be evacuated.
The count resumed after a delay of several hours following a controlled explosion by British army bomb experts.
As a result, the chief electoral officer switched the count venue to Lisneal College in the Waterside for the 2011 polls.
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