European elections: Final results for Midlands-North-West not expected until Friday
None of the twenty-seven candidates have been elected as of yet, with a close race for the fifth seat still in the cards
It has now been five days since voters in the Midlands-North-West constituency went to the polls, and the five MEP positions for the area are still yet to be filled.
The twelve counts have been completed so far, with Social Democrats candidate Rory Hearne the most recent candidate to be eliminated after a poor turnout.
There is still eight more eliminations to go before a final result, and to the dismay of count staff, media staff and candidates in attendance, it is likely that the count will not finish until all candidates (bar five) are eliminated.
It is also looking unlikely that any candidate will make the quota. While Independent candidate Luke 'Ming' Flanagan continues to lead the charge at 84,665 votes, he is still almost 30,000 votes away from meeting the quota.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are also set for success, with Nina Carberry, Maria Walsh and Barry Cowen all looking certain to be elected.
While Independent Ireland's Ciaran Mullooly is in pole position to win the final seat, Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew remains in the race for a seat, with the next few rounds of transfers crucial for her party.
Speaking on Monday about his success in the race thus far, Mullooly commented that he "had a very small team, less than 20 people involved in this, and we had a very small budget compared to some of the major parties on the machine of the major parties".
Sinn Féin saw some success in the elections yesterday with the re-election of Lynn Boylan in the Dublin constituency for European Parliament, but the party has continued to perform poorer than expectations.
Speaking to reporters on Monday in the count centre at the TF Hotel in Castlebar, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy, a former MEP for the party in the Midlands region, said that Sinn Fein was “fighting” to keep a seat there.
“We need to get down to brass tacks and actually back to earning the trust of the people in advance of the general election.”
Mullooly is now expected to pick up the majority of transfer votes from right-wing candidates Peter Casey and Hermann Kelly, but Gildernew will see a surge following the expected exclusion of fellow Sinn Féin candidate Chris MacManus, who currently sits on just over 31,000 votes.