Politics

Lynn Boylan set to claim European seat in Dublin for Sinn Féin

Independent candidate Luke Ming Flanagan has performed well according to early tallies

Sinn Féin European Election candidate Lynn Boylan has claimed 24 per cent of the Dublin vote according to an exit poll. Photograph: David Sleator/The Irish Times
Sat May 24 2014 - 11:45

Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan looks set to claim a European election seat in Dublin with an a combination of tallies and exit polls showing she is in a strong position.

With counting under way since 9am and 15 per cent of boxes opened and tallied in Dublin city, Ms Boylan is on 28 per cent.

Behind her is Fianna Fáil's Mary Fitzpatrick on12 per cent, level with Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.

Fine Gael's Brian Hayes is on 11 per cent. People Before Profit's Brid Smith is on nine, along with Independent Nessa Childers and Labour's Emer Costello.

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Outgoing Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy is on eight.

The tallies are close to the findings of an exit poll for RTÉ which placed Ms Boylan on 24 per cent, with Mr Hayes and Mr Ryan tied on 14 per cent.

The exit poll places Ms Fitzpartick on 12 per cent and Independent Ms Childers on 11 per cent.

The exit poll was conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes and is based on a sample of 1,000 voters in Dublin and has a 3 per cent margin of error.

The European Parliament Election votes will not be counted until tomorrow with the first results likely to be announced after 10pm.

For Ireland South the exit poll puts the ever-popular sitting MEP Brian Crowley Fianna Fáil on course to take a seat at 26 per cent.

Sinn Fein looks likely to take the second seat with Liadh Ni Riada at 17 per cent.

Fine Gael's sitting MEP Sean Kelly is third at 12 per cent. There are two other Fine Gael candidates in contention for the fourth seat with Deirdre Clune on 9 per cent, Simon Harris on 7 per cent.

Still in the running for the fourth seat at 5 per cent is Fianna Fáil’s Kieran Hartley, Green Party candidate Grace O’Sullivan, Labour’s Phil Prendergast, and Independent candidate Diarmaid O’Flynn.

In the Midlands North West constituency Independent candidate Luke Ming Flanagan is polling well according to early tallies from the Mayo count centre in Castlebar.

Mr Flanagan is topping the tally in many Castlebar boxes which are in the process of being counted.

Observers say Mr Flanagan is doing at least as well in Castlebar as outgoing Fine Gael MP Jim Higgins who is a County Mayo native.

Early tallies in Sligo show sitting MEP Marian Harkin leading the field in her native county, with Sinn Fein's Matt Carthy and Mr Flanagan are also performing well.

With just 20 out of 112 boxes tallied in Sligo, Ms Harkin had 41 per cent, Mr Carthy was coming second with 21 per cent while Mr Flanagan was scoring 17 per cent of first preference votes.

In the Sligo town boxes the news looks bad for both Government parties with sitting Fine Gael MEPs Jim Higgins and Mairead McGuinness at 3 per cent each.

The picture was equally bleak for Fianna Fáil with these early tallies showing Pat the Cope Gallagher at 4 per cent and Thomas Byrne at 2 per cent.

Labour's Lorraine Higgins was also on 2 per cent.

The final turnout for the elections, which closed at 10pm last night, is estimated at being somewhere around 50 per cent.

Turnout in the Midlands North West is expected to be somewhere between 55 per cent and 60 per cent, while the turnout in Dublin is likely to have been much lower.