Donegal elects its five TDs with two Sinn Fein, two Fianna Fail and one 100% Redress Party
Donegal’s five TDs have been elected for the new term in Dail Eireann, with both Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil taking two seats, the 100% Redress Party taking one and an Independent losing out.
Twenty candidates put their name forward for election, but only five could be elected.
These were Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, who topped the poll and was elected on the first count with 18,898 votes, considerably higher than the quota of 12,771, and the highest personal vote of any candidate in the country.
He was followed by his party colleague Padraig MacLochlainn, who was elected on the second count. He received 9,799 first preference votes and a further 3,296 votes from the distribution of Doherty’s votes, which took him over the quota, on 13,095 votes.
By this stage, it became evident that Fianna Fáil’s Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher, with 10, 024 first preferences, would win the third seat and that he did. After hours of counting and checking, he was elected on the 15th count, late on Sunday night, with 13,660.
It then became a three-horse race for the final two seats. The 100% Redress Party’s Charles Ward received 6,862 first preference votes. He was extremely transfer friendly and was elected on count 16, with 11,714 votes. The party was formed in response to the defective blocks crisis and he is the first 100% Redress Party member in the Dail.
Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue, the former Minister for Agriculture, took the fifth seat, also on the 16th count, with 11,109 votes. He had received 8,109 first preference votes.
Fine Gael did not retain a seat in Donegal. The party’s outgoing TD Joe McHugh did not run in this election.
Independent TD Thomas Pringle meanwhile lost his seat.
The total electorate in Donegal was 131,306, with a total poll of 77,321 and a valid poll of 76,624. Turnout in Donegal was 58.89%.
In Derry’s nearest neighbour, Inishowen, Sinn Féin’s Padraig MacLochlainn came out on top, with tallies stating he took 6,211 first preference votes there. He was followed by his party colleague, Pearse Doherty, who had 3,111 votes in the tallies and then Charlie McConalogue, at 3,889, Charles Ward at 2,464 and Fine Gael’s Nikki Bradley at 744.