NORTH WEST:OUTGOING MEPs Marian Harkin (Independent) and Jim Higgins of Fine Gael, as well as former MEP Pat "The Cope" Gallagher, look set to be successful in the North West constituency today.
The first count of votes in the European election, announced last night, revealed that Ms Harkin polled 84,813 first preferences. Mr Gallagher followed with 82,643 and Mr Higgins with 80,093. The quota was 123,815.
Libertas leader Declan Ganley came fourth with 70,638 first preference votes. Mr Ganley’s supporters were last night refusing to concede that he would not take a seat in the European Parliament after transfers. But his spokesman said: “The maths is tough.”
While final results are not expected until this evening, Ms Harkin said the contest was over.
“This is over. I mean, that probably won’t please the media in the sense that Ganley was the story of the campaign, which, I must add, was very difficult for those in his shadow, but that doesn’t matter – we did the work on the ground. I’m just so pleased it’s working out.”
Mr Gallagher said he had been “quietly confident” all along. “I think it’s beyond doubt now that I will get elected with a substantial transfer from Paschal Mooney .”
He added that he was benefiting from the transfers of Sinn Féin’s Padraig MacLochlainn from Buncrana, Co Donegal.
Asked whether Mr Ganley had a chance, Mr Gallagher said: “He’s on 70,000 and I would think that he would have great difficulty in catching either myself or indeed Jim Higgins at this stage.”
Mr Gallagher declared four weeks ago after Seán Ó Neachtain, the third outgoing MEP in the constituency, said he was standing down on medical advice two weeks after he had been nominated.
Mr Higgins predicted there would be 30-40,000 votes between the third MEP and Mr Ganley. He said Mr Ganley had polled well on first preferences, but had proved unable to attract transfers from other candidates, except Sinn Féin.
“Very pleased with the poll, much as predicted. At the end of the day, the problem for Declan Ganley – he simply won’t have transfers,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Mr Higgins had said: “What is obvious, however, is that Declan Ganley is trailing. He got a very substantial, and I have to say a very respectable, first-preference vote, but when it comes to transfers he’s just not figuring.”
Mr Higgins said Mr Ganley was getting transfers from Sinn Féin, “but nothing near the quantity of transfers that he’d require to be in the reckoning for the final seat”.
The electorate in the North West constituency was 805,626 and the total poll was 510,932. A total of 15,675 spoiled votes left the valid poll at 495,257.
With attention focused on the local elections on Saturday, the 11-county tally of first preferences for the North West constituency in the European elections was somewhat patchy. Tallies from Donegal were said to be particularly incomplete. Second-preference votes were monitored closely by party workers in the count centre.
Tallies collated by Ms Harkin’s team appeared to be the most detailed of any candidate, with representatives of other parties frequently checking their data in the TF Royal Theatre, Castlebar.
Earlier, some people connected to Mr Ganley’s campaign had complained that those in the count centre could not see seals being broken on the ballot boxes.
A spokesman for Mr Ganley said he had asked the returning officer to “check out” a report that “a bin of Ganley votes” had been mistakenly allocated to one of the other candidates.
“We’re not asking for a recount at this stage. We’re simply investigating the possibility that human error may have occurred on the accounts of three or four eyewitnesses who were watching from above as votes were being allocated.”