Home support comes out in force behind Conway-Walsh

Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh looks set to solidify her strong home base with tallies showing her picking up 41 percent of the vote in the Belmullet Electoral Area.

With 92 percent of the Belmullet boxes tallied, the Erris-based TD was well clear of the other candidates in the field with Fianna Fáíl TD Dara Calleary and Fine Gael candidate Keira Keogh coming in on 16 percent each while Lisa Chambers (FF) is on 8 and Alan Dillon (FG) is on 5 percent

Conway-Walsh's overall percentage was down 3 percent on her showing in the 2020 General Election with the turnout for the Belmullet Electoral Area estimated at 51 percent.

With Michael Ring not contesting the General Election all eyes were on how Keira Keogh would tally outside her Westport base. Ring secured 25 percent of the vote in the Belmullet Electoral Area in 2020 and tallies show Keogh was able to pick up over half of these votes.

The Belmullet Electoral Area includes all of Erris as well as Achill and Mulranny with Fianna Fáil splitting the electoral area with Calleary taking Erris and Lisa Chambers canvassing in the southern part.

Tallies show that Calleary iis set to increase his share of the vote from 2020 by up to 6 percent while Chambers percentage looks to have dropped by 1 percent.

Alan Dillon's popularity among the electorate was evident in this area with the Castlebar-based candidate outpolling his party colleague Keira Keogh by 50 votes to 43 in the Dooagh NS box on Achill Island.