European Elections 2024: ‘No secret Sinn Féin didn’t have a good election’ – Chris MacManus loses MEP seat with party’s hopes still pinned on Gildernew

Midlands North-West

Reacting today, MacManus said: “It’s no secret that Sinn Fein didn’t have a good election day. Me and my team have worked very hard the last couple of weeks during the actual campaign.

“I committed myself to the full four years of being the MEP and worked as hard as I possibly could. Unfortunately, it wasn’t me to be elected this time.

“Now, I am only hoping that my transfers work to ensure that Michelle Gildernew is there right till the end of the possibility of winning a seat.”

On being asked if he believes that Michelle will have enough transfers to surpass Mullooly, he said : “The numbers currently are not in favour of Michelle, but we should not write her out just yet.”

The 17th count shook the positions of the remaining candidates in the run for five seats. Fine Gael’s Nina Carberry received a fair amount of transfer votes bringing her back into second position, with 86,268 votes. Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen is next up, in third, just 30 votes ahead of sitting Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh. Independent Ireland candidate, Ciaran Mullooly is holding firm in fifth, with 12,269 votes ahead of Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers. Being the top receiver of transfer (9,016) votes in this count, Lisa has managed to make a comeback to her sixth position, surpassing Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew and Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín. Independent candidate Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is now very close to reaching the quota of 113,325 votes needed, as he continues to top the poll.

The score board for this five seater run is:

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan (IND) 106461 Nina Carberry (FG) 86268 Barry Cowen (FF) 84965 Maria Walsh (FG) 84935 Ciaran Mullooly (II) 71933 Lisa Chambers (FF) 59664 Peader Tóibín (Aontú) 55399 Michelle Gildernew (SF) 54103 *No candidate has yet reached the quota, hence Sinn Féin candidate and sitting MEP Chris MacManus has been eliminated with the lowest count of 36,157. His votes are now being re-distributed.

Ireland South

The count in the Ireland South constituency will continue on Thursday with four MEPs still to be elected six days after voting took place.

Grace O’Sullivan (Green Party) received 7,675 votes following the elimination and the distribution of the papers of Susan Doyle of the Social Democrats in the 16th count, giving her a slim chance of retaining her seat.

Anti-immigrant campaigner Derek Blighe (IF) was then eliminated in the 16th count. The distribution of his 38,625 papers will follow on Thursday morning. His transfers are expected to go largely to Mick Wallace of I4C.

Sean Kelly remains the only person elected to the European Parliament in the constituency. Billy Kelleher (Fianna Fail) is on 106,051, followed by Michael McNamara (Ind) on 75,570, Mick Wallace (I4C) on 67,146, Cynthia Ni Mhurchu on 65,361 and Grace O’Sullivan on 63,335.

Billy Kelleher is now under 4,000 votes shy of the quota at 114,761.

Kathleen Funchion leapfrogged ahead of a number of candidates having picked up a massive 15,750 votes following the elimination of Paul Gavan, also of Sinn Féin, in the thirteenth count and the distribution of his papers. She sits in third on 76,697.

Michael McNamara (Ind) follows with 75,590. Mick Wallace of I4C is on 67,146 in fifth while Cynthia Ni Mhurchu of Fianna Fáil is in sixth on 65,361. Grace O’Sullivan of the Green Party will almost certainly lose her seat in the European Parliament as she is on 63,335 in seventh.

Sean Kelly of Fine Gael was elected in the first count. Mr Kelly remains the only candidate elected in Ireland South topping the poll with 127,777 votes out of a total poll of 713,323. He had a surplus of over 8,000 votes.

It is understood counting will resume in the morning at 9am and that a number of the candidates will be elected without reaching the quota.

Midlands North-West

Day sixth of vote count of European Elections for Midlands Northwest constituency came to an end with some dramatic change of events as Fine Gael’s sitting MEP Maria Walsh surpassed Fianna Fail candidate Barry Cowen and her party colleague Nina Carberry to take second place in the run.

The day came to an end without any candidate getting elected hence extending the wait to yet another day.

Poll topper Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is now only 9672 votes away from reaching the quota, which he might achieve after the redistribution of votes from eliminated candidate Niall Blaney (FF) in the 17th count on Thursday morning.

Fine Gael candidate Maria Walsh grabbed second position surpassing Nina Carberry (FG) in the 16th count.

Another highlight of the day was the competition between Aontú candidate Peadar Tóibín and Sinn Féin candidate Michelle Gildernew.

Peadar has surpassed Michelle to grab the sixth position in the run for five seats in Midlands-North West constituency.

18 out of 27 candidates have been eliminated by day sixth of the count, although the wait for an election is still not over.

The total poll for remaining 9 candidates for the five seater constituency are:

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan(IND) 103653

Maria Walsh (FG) 83060

Nina Carberry (FG) 82086

Barry Cowen (FF) 78841

Ciaran Mullooly (II) 71107

Peadar Tóibín (Aontú) 54531

Michelle Gildernew (SF) 53129

Lisa Chambers (FF) 50648

Chris MacManus (SF) 35235

The count will continue on Thursday morning.

Dublin

Green Party MEP Ciaran Cuffe lost his seat in Europe after he was eliminated on the 18th count in the Dublin constituency on Tuesday. It followed outgoing MEP Clare Daly’s exclusion on the 17th count.

In Dublin’s European constituency, Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews, Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty, Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan and Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin were elected as all four seats are now filled.

John Moran is elected Limerick Mayor