Craic On

Padraig MacLochlainn

Padraig McLochlainn of Sinn Fein was in a titanic battle with Independent Thomas Pringle for the 5th and last seat in Donegal.

He was in 6th place till he got the second preference votes of a fellow Sinn Fein candidate.

That took him into 5th place by around 900 votes.

However, there were still more than 10,000 votes left to be reapportioned from a couple of Independent candidates.

As Thomas Pringle was also an Independent perhaps they would go his way.

After the first of the Independents, Padraig still had a lead of around 650.

Would ge get enough from the last Independent to go or would he lose out to Thomas Pringle.

It was a very close squeak but he managed to hang on but by just 74 votes.

He beat Thomas Pringle with 9,716 votes to 9,642.

Sinn Fein almost blew it in Donegal but they just had enough to take two seats, like Fianna Fail.

Update

It seems that I was a bit premature.

It seems that Pat the Cope has gone over the top and his extra votes have not been allocated yet.

Indeed it is being predicted on TV that Thomas Pringle will actually win the last seat instead of Padraig once these have been reallocated.

Update 2

Those votes have now been allocated and Thomas Pringle has beaten Padraig MacLochlainn by just 26 votes.

So, it seems that Padraig has lost.

With it being so close there may be a recount.

However, it will be very hard to overturn the 36 votes.

It looks like Sinn Fein has screwed it up in Donegal by adding a 3rd candidate.

Update 5

I notice that the seat still hasn’t been allocated so maybe there is still some other jiggerpokery to happen.

Update 5

There WAS more jiggerypokery to happen – but it has happened and the seat has now been allocated – to Independent Thomas Pringle by 182 votes.

Padraig MacLochlainn is now definitely out.

I had Thomas Pringle as my 2nd vote and Padraig as my 3rd vote.