EUROPEAN ELECTIONS: SOUTHLABOUR SENATOR Alan Kelly last night made it a hat-trick 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 Tipperary, had looked to be set for a close contest for the last seat with Sinn Féin’s Toireasa Ferris who out-polled him on the first count by 12.98 per cent to 12.88 per cent.
Tralee-based Ms Ferris remained in contention right to the seventh count, when she was overtaken by Ms Sinnott.
That late surge by Ms Sinnott came on foot of the distribution of the surplus of Fine Gael’s Seán Kelly, a former GAA president, of more than 10,000 votes, courtesy of running mate Colm Burke’s elimination, and Mr Burke’s votes, predominantly from Cork, transferred via Seán Kelly to Ms Sinnott, who is also from Cork.
Although Ms Sinnott overtook Ms Ferris, she remained some 8,753 votes 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.
Alan Kelly held off the challenge to regain a seat that Labour last held in the early 1980s through the late Eileen Desmond.
Mr Kelly received a total of 21,676 transfers from Ms Ferris to reach a final tally of 105,597.
Ms Sinnott received 19,966 transfers from Ms Ferris to reach a final figure of 95,134, leaving Alan Kelly to take the final seat on the eighth count without reaching the quota.
Earlier, sitting Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley stormed home with 118,258 or 23.74 per cent of the first preference vote, and was elected on the fourth count when he received 10,006 transfers from running mate Ned O’Keeffe.
Fine Gael’s Seán Kelly polled an impressive 92,579 or 18.58 per cent on the first count and was elected on the sixth count after a massive transfer of 36,318 from party colleague and sitting MEP Colm Burke to carry him over the quota of 124,532.
Mr Kelly said he was both “humbled and delighted” by his success.
He was shouldered high by supporters before being congratulated by party leader Enda Kenny who had arrived at the Neptune Stadium 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 she accepted the result.
She said her opposition to the Lisbon Treaty may have contributed to her defeat.
“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.”
Asked if she was suggesting that other parties had targeted her, Ms Sinnott said that she did not know who was involved, other than that she was told the media had been hounding her over her allowances.
“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 part of it and you accept it and that’s the way it is.
“I love democracy so I’m happy with whatever the voters decide,” she said.
