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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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European election count continuing in Castlebar
Mayo Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh remains on course to retain her seat in the European Parliament but fellow Mayo candidate Lisa Chambers needs a big transfer swing to keep her in the hunt.
No candidates have been elected in the Midlands-North-West constituency after four days of counting in the TF Royal Theatre but sitting Independent MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is just under 10,000 votes short of the 113,325 quota and is expected to be elected later today.
Shrule's Maria Walsh is currently next on 83,060 votes just ahead of her Fine Gael running mate Nina Carberry and Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen on 78,841.
The 16th count resulted in the elimination of Fianna Fáil's Niall Blaney whose votes are currently being distributed. Mayo's Lisa Chambers is still in the hunt for the final seat with 50,648 votes but will need a large chuck of Blaney's 34,074 votes to stand a chance of catching former RTÉ reporter, Ciarán Mullooly, who is currently the favourite for the fifth seat with 71,107 votes.
The Independent Ireland candidate is 16,576 votes ahead of Aontú's Peadar Tóibín in sixth position and 17,978 ahead of Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew.
Sitting MEP Chris MacManus of Sinn Féín currently sitting on 35,235 is expected to be the next to be eliminated following the distribution of Blaney's transfers. If Sinn Féin are to have any chance of retaining their seat they will hope that up to 60 percent of MacManus's transfers will go to Gildernew.
The other Mayo candidate Saoirse McHugh was eliminated from the race after the 15th count. The former Green Party member who ran as an Independent was eliminated on 31,519 with 8,339 of her transfers going to Ming Flanagan while Maria Walsh received 3,750, Mullooly received 2,444 and Lisa Chambers received 2,070.
The count is expected to continue into Friday with Ming Flanagan expressing confidence that he will exceed the quota. The other four candidates are all expected to be elected without reaching the quota following the elimination of the remaining candidates.
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