NORTH WEST:OUTGOING INDEPENDENT MEP Marian Harkin, former MEP Pat "the Cope" Gallagher TD and current MEP Jim Higgins of Fine Gael looked certain of victory in the North West constituency last night.
Libertas leader Declan Ganley, who polled fourth on first preferences, conceded shortly before 7.30pm that he could not take a seat. On first preferences, which were re-checked yesterday, Ms Harkin had topped the poll with 84,813 votes. Mr Gallagher followed with 82,643 and Mr Higgins with 80,093.
Ms Harkin was a strong beneficiary of transfers from eliminated candidates.
She got 9,623 transfers from Labour’s Susan O’Keeffe, when the Sligo-based journalist was eliminated after the second count. Ms O’Keeffe’s first preference vote was 28,708.
Ms Harkin also took the largest portion of transfers from the five Independent candidates who were excluded after the first count.
One of them, Michael McNamara, had polled well in Clare with 12,744 first preferences.
Mr Higgins’s running mate, the Cavan/Monaghan Senator Joe O’Reilly, was eliminated after the third count. His first preference vote was 37,564.
The re-checking of ballot papers, which began yesterday morning and was scheduled to take a few hours, continued until just before 5.30pm. Mr Ganley’s first preference vote dropped by 3,000 to 67,638 after the re-check.
The 3,000 extra votes, belonging to the Independent candidate Fiachra O’Luain, had been bundled with Mr Ganley’s by mistake. However, the new figures did not have an impact on the outcome of the count.
Mr O’Luain, whose first preferences rose from 3,510 to 6,510 when the temporarily misplaced votes were included, was eliminated after the first count.
After the re-check, the electorate in the North West constituency remained at 805,626 but the total poll was 510,982 instead of 510,932.
A total of 15,675 spoiled votes left the valid poll at 495,307, rather than 495,257. The extra 50 votes, found in a bundle of 500 belonging to another candidate, were, in fact, meant for Labour’s Ms O’Keeffe.
Ms O’Keeffe’s first preference vote was announced as 28,658 on Sunday night when, in fact, it was 28,708.
The five Independent candidates eliminated after the first count were: Mr McNamara (12,744 first preferences), Mr O’Luain (6,510), John Francis Higgins (3,030), Noel McCullagh (1,940) and Thomas King (1,124).
In other first preference votes, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn of Sinn Féin had 45,515 and Fianna Fáil’s Paschal Mooney 42,985.
The recount took place after Mr Ganley asked the returning officer, Kieran McDermott, to “check out” a report that “a bin of Ganley votes” had been mistakenly allocated to another candidate, according to Mr Ganley’s spokesman.
Count centre staff checked bundles of 50 ballot papers by removing the elastic bands holding the papers together and checking the first preference candidate in approximately five places in each pile.
The count then resumed at around 5.30pm. After the first three counts no candidate had reached the quota, which had been increased to 123,815 after the recheck.
Earlier, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny called at the Castlebar count centre and underlined what Fine Gael had achieved nationally.
Referring to his party’s results in the local elections, he said: “For the first time in 80 years the dominance of Fianna Fáil has been smashed.”
Mr Kenny said the Government had been “convicted” by the people in the elections and was being held together by “political terror”.
He added: “The people have spoken. They have convicted this Government, and they will continue to wait for them.
“Insofar as we’re concerned we will keep the pressure on the Government.
“I can tell you now that from every constituency I’ve been in in the last six weeks, the people do want a general election.”