INDEPENDENT MEP MARIAN Harkin has reclaimed her European Parliament seat after a lengthy recheck process.
Her closest rival, Fianna Fáil’s Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher conceded at around 4am, saying he didn’t believe the gap between the two candidates could be bridged.
Gallagher, who was also bidding to keep his Brussels seat, had finished just 275 votes behind Harkin after the last count.
The recheck got under way at 10am yesterday at the Castlebar count centre.
Another returning MEP who was also subjected to a recheck sent her congratulations…
Harkin becomes the 11th and final Irish MEP to be elected, and joins the constituency’s independent Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Matt Carthy of Sinn Féin and Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness in Europe.
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