Sinn Féin doubles its vote in 26-County EU elections
BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN
The 88,165 votes won by Sinn Féin in the 26 Counties amounts to a doubling
of the party's vote share compared to the 1994 EU election. The party vote
share increased in each of the four EU constituencies to 6.33% overall.
In Connacht Ulster, Seán MacManus polled 20,457 votes, 6.39% of the poll,
up from 6% in 1994. In Dublin, Seán Crowe's 18,633 votes gave the party
6.64% of the total poll, up from 2.9% in 1994. Arthur Morgan's 20,015 first
preferences for Sinn Féin in Leinster was a significant increase from the
2.5% share the party had in 1994. It was in Munster though, that Sinn Féin
recorded the highest growth in vote share. Martin Ferris polled 29,060
votes, 6.48% of the poll compared to 1.4% in 1994.
The end result of the election saw little change in the make up of party
representation. Fianna Fáil lost a seat in Connacht Ulster to Dana and it
seems that we must steel ourselves for Abortion referendum part three. In
Leinster, sitting Fine Gael MEP Alan Gillis lost out to poll topper Avril
Doyle, while the Green Party's Nuala Ahern hung on for the last seat.
In Dublin, Bernie Malone the loser in the Democratic Left/Labour merger,
was cuckooed by Prionsias DeRossa as Labour held its seat.
In Munster, Brian Crowley racked up almost two quotas with his surplus
spread around every other candidate. When Martin Ferris was eliminated on
the fifth count, 54% of his votes proved nontransferable.
The Sinn Féin transfers were interesting to watch in Dublin. The largest
share went to Patricia McKenna. She got 31% of Seán Crowe's transfers with
another 28% nontransferable. The performance of Sinn Féin across the four
constituencies and the growth in the party's vote share shows that in five
years time, there will be four Sinn Féin candidates knocking at the door
for EU seats.