This follows reports that several posters have been defaced across the county, with the faces of candidates from a number of parties cut out or spray-painted, including Sinn Féin’s Martin Kenny, Fine Gael’s Frankie Feighan and Fianna Fáil candidate Edel McSharry.

This is an act of vandalism on election posters across the country.

Although there is no indication that the attacks are linked, a similar type of vandalism was carried out on posters in the Cork South West constituency, where candidates’ faces were cut out.

Fine Gael candidate Tim Lombard said: “This is not the first time we have seen faceless bandits strike in this part of the world.

We had this phenomenon during the local elections last May and June, where almost all the posters were defaced, then a few days later, the faces appeared on different posters.

Mr Lombard said it was very disappointing to see his posters along with those of a number of other candidates, including Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, Fianna Fáil’s Christopher O’Sullivan and the Party’s Evie Nevin Labor, degraded.

Meanwhile, Tipperary South general election candidate Michael Murphy has also had his posters targeted.

The Fine Gael councilor said he would not be intimidated by the actions which included the burning of some posters and others daubed with offensive slogans.

“I will continue to represent the people of South Tipp and will not be deterred by the cowardly and evil actions of a tiny minority. Thank you to the thousands of people I have already met on the campaign trail. I am more determined than ever to be your voice in the Dáil,” he said.

In Waterford Fine Gael, Senator John Cummins had posters painted with the word “traitor”, prompting local police to warn the public that tampering with an election poster is a criminal offence.

A number of posters across the country have been vandalized by all sorts of parties – and we are asking people to stay away from these posters and not damage them.

“They will be up for the next two weeks or so, and if any member of the public observes someone interfering with a poster or sees one that has been vandalized, we will ask them to contact their local Garda station,” said a door -local Garda spokesperson. told WLR fm.