LAST UPDATE | 10 Jun
FIRST RESULTS IN the Midlands-North-West constituency for the European elections are not expected until around 9pm, according to the returning officer.
Counting of ballots got under way yesterday after votes were cast on Friday.
In Midlands-North-West there are 27 candidates fighting for five seats in the massive electoral region which spans 15 counties.
The number of candidates required a 73cm-long ballot paper which was described as “like a toilet roll” by Fine Gael TD Michael Ring yesterday.
It means there was more than 500 kilometres of ballots to sort through by hand.
Hundreds of count staff have been processing around 700,000 ballots for the region at the TF Royal Theatre in Castlebar, Co Mayo and it seems assured that incumbents Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and Maria Walsh, and sitting TD Barry Cowen will take seats.
That leaves Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil scrapping it out with former RTÉ reporter Ciaran Mullooly, Sinn Féin’s Chris Mac Manus and Michelle Gildernew, and Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín for the remaining two seats.
Fine Gael candidate Nina Carberry and Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers are also in with a chance.
By 4pm, around 400,000 of the ballots – mainly associated with the leading candidates – had been fully sorted and counted by first preference.
After getting through the bulk of the ballots, returning officer Marian Chambers Higgins sent some of the counters out for a 20-minute break to re-energise ahead of a busy push to return a first count.
The current four MEPs are independent Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Fine Gael’s Colm Markey and Maria Walsh, as well as Sinn Fein’s Chris MacManus.
Markey was withdrawn and Fine Gael selected Irish Grand National-winning jockey Nina Carberry in his stead – a move seen as a celebrity candidature.
Speaking to reporters in Castlebar, Aontú leader and European election candidate in Midlands-North-Wet Peadar Tóibín criticised so-called “celebrity candidates”.
“I actually think the addition of celebrity candidates is a significant negative in Irish politics,” said Tóibín.
He added: “I don’t like to personally identify particular candidates but Nina Carberry participated in about four minutes of national broadcast debate over the length of the campaign.”
Tóibín remarked that “Sinn Féin will be crestfallen” with their performance so far and that there are “serious questions for Mary Lou McDonald’s leadership at the moment.”
He was a Sinn Féin member until 2018, and soon after leaving the party he founded Aontú.
Tóibín claimed that he has spoken to Sinn Féin supporters at count centres who “are questioning whether Mary Lou should continue on as leader”.
“I’m hearing people say Pearse Doherty’s name more and more,” said Tóibín.
Meanwhile, former RTÉ correspondent Ciaran Mullooly said he’s “going to be in the mix for the fifth seat”.
He also said it’s “obvious” that Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Maria Walsh, Barry Cowen, and Nina Carberry have polled well.
However, Mullooly said he is most interested in the performance of Sinn Féin, particularly Michelle Gildernew, and Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín and that it’s crucial for his chances to stay ahead of Tóibín.
A veteran of covering election counts with RTÉ, Mullooly said “he hates election counts” and recalled being at counts for five or six days on more than one occasion.
However, he adds there is a “certain satisfaction in coming in and looking at a bundle of votes”.
Meanwhile, Flanagan told reporters that it looks like he and Barry Cowen will be the top two after the first count.
He added that Tóibín and Mullooly seem to be “neck and neck” but that “we’ll see what happens” when all the transfers are accounted for.
Flanagan also said he expects “another three days, and maybe a little longer” before the count is over and adds that there may be a recount.
He also remarked that it is “hard” to know what the message for national government is off the back of the local and European elections.
“I wouldn’t rule out Sinn Féin doing very, very well in the next general election,” said Flanagan, who added that election results might make Fine Gael “a little bit complacent and deluded as to the idea that Simon Harris is some sort of saviour”.
“I think the general election will show that he isn’t,” said Flanagan.
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy was also at the count in Castlebar and told reporters that Michelle Gildernew is an “excellent candidate”.
Gildernew previously told The Journal that she was asked to run in the European elections by Matt Carthy.
However, referencing the loss of Gildernew’s nephew Fiachra Ó Faoláin who died after getting into difficulty in a County Tyrone lake earlier this month, Carthy remarked that Gildernew has been dealing with tragedy “which essentially removed her from the campaign at what is a pivotal juncture”.
“That’s essentially the week that people start to think about how they might vote, and our candidate was grieving with our family,” said Carthy.
“So lots of things within the campaign probably could have been done better, but some parts of it were beyond our control.”
Elsewhere, Lisa Chambers said on Sunday that she was confident that Cowen will “comfortably” take a seat for Fianna Fáil, adding she herself was also “in the mix” for the fifth and final spot against the Sinn Féin candidates and Carberry.
-With additional reporting from Press Association
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This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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