On the night of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement referendum, Northern Ireland’s chief electoral officer, Pat Bradley, was approached by Ian Paisley, who was convinced the government would interfere with unopened ballot boxes. The leader of the Democratic Unionist party requested that party officials keep watch over them.
Bradley, who has died aged 90, refused but permitted one DUP official to remain – though the individual did not stay the full night. Bradley himself remained awake for more than 40 hours, determined that the election should be free and fair. “I did not want any hints or innuendo that the boxes had been tampered with,” he later explained.
