Crowley elected but Collins to lose out to Sinnott

Fianna Fáil MEP, Mr Brian Crowley has topped the poll in three-seat Euro South constituency, retaining his seat after the completion of the first count this evening.

But there is more bad news for the party as his colleague Mr Gerard Collins looks certain to lose his seat to the independent candidate Ms Kathy Sinnott.

Mr Crowley received 125,539 first preference seats putting him well over the quota of 121,068.

He was followed by Fine Gael's Mr Simon Coveney who looks certain to take the second seat having gained 118,937 first preference votes.

Ms Sinnott received the next highest total of first preferences with 89,127, almost 16,000 votes ahead of Mr Collins.

Mr Collins's camp have been deeply critical of the way the constituency was managed by the Fianna Fáil HQ and its director of elections, Minister for Arts, Tourism and Sport, Mr O'Donoghue. However, the Fianna Fáil vote is down almost 12 per cent in the Munster area compared with five years ago.

They also claim that Mr Crowley failed to abide by a constituency divide which would have given him most of Cork city and county as well as South Tipperary and Waterford city.

However, the real story is the likely claiming of the third seat by Ms Sinnott who lost out so narrowly for a Dail seat in the 2002 General Election.

There were 484,270 valid votes cast in the south constituency.