General Election 2024: Tallies for Inishowen and Letterkenny show strong vote for Sinn Fein

The sorting of votes for the General Election began in the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny on Saturday morning, with counting due to get underway later.

Tallies for 62 boxes in Inishowen show that Sinn Fein’s Padraig MacLochlainn looks to have received the most first preference votes there, with a tally number of 6211 (32.6%), followed by his party colleague, Pearse Doherty at 3,111 (16.3%).

Fianna Fail’s Charlie McConalogue, the former Minister for Agriculture and who, along with MacLochlainn, is from Inishowen, is coming in third in the peninsula with 3889 (20.4%), followed by Charles Ward of the 100% Redress Party at 2464 (12.9%) and Fine Gael’s Nikki Bradley on 744 (3.9%).

There are 20 candidates seeking election, with five seats for Donegal.

The tallies for Letterkenny also show strong support for Sinn Fein there with Pearse Doherty tallying at 23.4%, followed by Padraig MacLochlainn at 13.6%, Charlie McConalogue at 13.5%, Charles Ward at 12.4% and Nikki Bradley at 8%.

Boxes are being opened and sorted shortly for the Milford, Donegal, Glenties and Stranorlar areas, with the official count then getting underway later.