Labour Senator, Alan Kelly tonight made it a hatrick of wins for the party in the European elections when he held off a late challenge from sitting Independent MEP, Kathy Sinnott to take the final seat in the Ireland South constituency on the eighth and final count.
Mr Kelly from Portroe in North Tipperay had looked to be set for a close contest for the last seat with Sinn Fein’s
Toireasa Ferris who outpolled him on the first count by 12.98 per cent to 12.88 per cent and Tralee based Ms Ferris remained in contention right to the seventh count when she was dramatically overtaken by Ms Sinnott.
That late surge by Ms Sinnott came on foot of the distribution of Fine Gael’s Sean Kelly’s surplus of over 10,000 votes courtesy of running mate Colm Burke’s elimination and Mr Burke’s votes, predominantly from Cork, transferred via Sean Kelly to Ms Sinnott who also hails from Cork.
But although Ms Sinnott overtook Ms Ferris, she remained some 8,753 behind Alan Kelly and in the end it proved too big a gap to close as almost half of Ms Ferris’s final tally of 74,480 were not transferable and Mr Kelly held off the challenge to regain a seat that Labour last held in the early 1980s through the late Eileen Desmond.
Alan Kelly received a total of 21,676 transfers from Ms Ferris to reach a final tally of 105,597 while Ms Sinnott received some 19,966 transfers from Ms Ferris to reach a final figure of 95,134, leaving Mr Kelly to take the final seat on the eighth count without reaching the quota.
Earlier, sitting Fianna Fail MEP, Brian Crowley stormed home with some 118,258 or 23.74 per cent of the first preference vote and was duly elected on the fourth count when he received some 10,006 transfers from his running mate, Ned O’Keeffe to retain his seat for his fourth consecutive success in the constituency.
Former GAA President, Sean Kelly running for Fine Gael polled an impressive 92,579 or 18.58 per cent on the first count and was duly elected on the sixth count when he benefitted from a massive transfer of 36,318 from party colleague and sitting MEP, Colm Burke to carry him over the quota of 124,532.
Afterwards, Sean Kelly said that he was both “humbled and delighted” by his success as he was shouldered high by supporters before being congratulated by party leader Enda Kenny who had arrived at the Neptune Stadium to see the Kerryman elected shortly after 3pm
Ms Sinnott, speaking before the announcement of the final count but when it was clear that she was going to lose her seat, said that she accepted the result and while she didn’t know why exactly her vote had dropped, she may have suffered from her opposition to the Lisbon Treaty.
“Where did it go wrong ? I don’t know. Two weeks after the Lisbon Treaty, somebody came up to me in the hall and said it had been decided to take me out — I don’t know if that had anything to do with it but certainly I don’t know — it was just something I was told in the parliament, I won’t go back over it,” she said.
Asked if she was suggesting that other parties had targeted her, Ms Sinnott said that she didn’t know who was involved other that she was told that the media had been hounding her over her allowances before going on to say that she fully accepted the verdict of the voters.
“Sometimes I think when you’re an MEP, you’re the away team , you go away, you work hard, you give all your time but
it really is a problem that people don’t know what you do on the ground and that’s just partof it and you accept it and that’s the way it is- I love democracy so I’m happy with whatever the voters decide.”