LAST UPDATE | 10 Jun
THE FIRST COUNT in the massive Midlands-North West constituency has been announced.
Sitting MEP Luke Ming Flanagan has topped the poll on 78,214.
Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen on 73,908 is in second place just ahead of Fine Gael’s Nina Carberry who is on 73,888 and her party colleague Maria Walsh on 71,476.
The electorate was 679,946 and the quota is 113,325.
The three lowest-ranking candidates have been eliminated.
Speaking after topping the poll, Flanagan said he “would be a sad sort of individual if I wasn’t delighted at topping the poll”.
“I should have a very, very good chance of getting elected but look, a word of caution, I still need another 34,000 votes before I reach the quota,” said Flanagan.
He also noted that some people at the centre were surprised that Carberry was ahead of Walsh, and remarked that Fine Gael has a “big chance” of getting two seats.
Flanagan said the Sinn Féin vote won’t be enough to get the party a seat and that “they’re really struggling”.
Meanwhile, Maria Walsh told reporters that she was really happy with her showing.
However, she added: “As a Mayo GAA supporter, I also know you do not leave until you hear the final whistle.”
She also said the “tight strategy” Fine Gael ran in this constituency cannot be underestimated and expressed confidence the party would win two seats.
Walsh added that “we have a long couple of days to go and the way transfers go you never know where that’s going to land”.
Meanwhile, Mullooly said it was a “fantastic” result for him and that’s he’s “really thrilled” to be in a “really strong position”.
He also commented that Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew got a “tremendous vote” of over 45,000 but remarked that Sinn Féin will be “disappointed with Chris McManus’s vote” of around 29,500.
Prior to the first results, Mullooly said it was important that he stays ahead of Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín, who got close to 41,000 first preference votes.
“There’s a clear gap there and I think that’ll stick to us as we go forward,” said Mullooly.
“I’m a little bit more optimistic going home tonight than I was coming in today.”
Elsewhere, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy said we have to see how things go but acknowledged that “four seats are locked up”.
“It’s ‘Ming’ Flanagan, the two Fine Gael candidates, and Barry Cowen, and then after that it’s Mullooly, Gildernew, Tóibín, it’s going to be a dogfight,” said Carthy.
He added that while MacManus will be “disappointed” with his vote, the party as a whole are disappointed with their showing.
“We’re disappointed with Michelle’s vote as well to be quite frank about it and I know the two candidates will be disappointed.
“The European election is a tough slog but let’s see how things play out.”
Counting now continues to distribute the votes of the three eliminated candidates.
Here are the full results:
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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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