Election 2020: Not the Independents’ day as vote almost halved

After the high-water mark of 2016, when 19 independent candidates were elected alongside four from the Independents4Change group, there were always going to be some casualties among the non-party ranks.

The exit poll suggested that Independents would marshal around 11.2 per cent of the vote, down from the 20 per cent claimed in 2016. First preferences that had belonged to Independent candidates scattered across the board, with the main beneficiaries seemingly Sinn Féin, the Green Party and Social Democrats.

The highest-profile loss of the day was undoubtedly Shane Ross, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, as Dublin Rathdown showed its vicious nature. He went the way of previous ministers such as Alex White and Eamon Ryan, who lost their seats after serving in cabinet and the constituency.

Ross saw his first-preference vote collapse from 10,202 in 2016 to just 3,419 this time. The polarising minister was never going to attract many transfers, and he was eliminated on the fifth count, with a storied political career likely coming to an end. He stormed into the Dáil in 2011, polling 17,075 first preferences in Dublin South.

Dramatic election raises big questions about economic policy

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Election 2020: Micheál Martin (Fianna Fáil)

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Election 2020: Sorca Clarke (Sinn Féin)

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Election 2020: Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael)

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His former colleague in the Independent Alliance Seán Canney topped the poll in Galway East, taking 7,815 first-preference votes. He quit the group in 2018 following an argument with his colleague Kevin “Boxer” Moran over who would hold the title of minister of state for the Office of Public Works. The pair had decided to share the role and flipped a coin to decide who would get the first stint. That arrangement ran into difficulty when the Government stayed in power for longer than anticipated.

Moran was in a battle to retain his seat in Longford-Westmeath. He polled 11.8 per cent of the first-preference vote. He left the Independent Alliance before the election, and has indicated that he would be interested in joining another independent grouping in the 33rd Dáil, should he be around to see one emerge.

On track

Another former alliance member, Michael Fitzmaurice, topped the poll and was elected on the first court in Roscommon-Galway. Fellow independent Denis Naughten, who served as a minister in the last government, was also on track to hold his seat in the constituency.

Katherine Zappone, the Minister for Children, was in a fight for survival in Dublin South-West after polling just 3,708 first-preference votes (5.49 per cent).

Noel Grealish, whose comments about immigrants won him plenty of criticism during the last Dáil, looked set to hold onto the old Bobby Molloy Progressive Democrat seat in Galway West. Catherine Connolly improved on her 2016 first-preference total in the constituency, and was in contention to be returned to Leinster House.

Independent Michael Collins almost doubled his 2016 haul as he topped the poll in Cork South-West. He has been involved in organising buses to bring constituents on waiting lists for procedures such as cataract removals to Northern Ireland for treatment.

Marian Harkin looked on course to take a seat in Sligo-Leitrim. The former teacher is well-known and well-liked in the constituency, where she worked for some 23 years, and was seen as a hard-working and solid MEP who maintained her ties to the locality.

Doubtlessly, her election will be seen as a gut-wrencher for Fine Gael, who pursued her as a candidate. At one point, that looked like a strong possibility, but she will likely take a seat as an Independent, whereas it looked as Fine Gael’s Frank Feighan was facing an uphill struggle to be elected.

There was no joy for Peter Casey in either constituency he ran in. The businessman was a candidate in Dublin West and Donegal, but early counts indicated that his particular brand of haphazard political iconoclasm failed to spark much excitement among voters. His plan in Dublin West was to embarrass the Taoiseach, but he only attracted 495 first preferences. In Donegal, his real target, Casey banked 1,142 first preferences, just 1.48 per cent of the total.

Raucous reception

Tipperary, unsurprisingly, returned both Michael Lowry and Mattie McGrath. Given a raucous reception on arrival, Lowry proved, as expected, that no matter what comes his way he is the best vote-getter of this political generation in the constituency. A result that was never in doubt, only the margin of his victory was up for debate. He was elected on the first count with 14,802 votes. McGrath got 9,321 votes.

And was there ever a doubt about the Healy-Raes? Well, maybe for a minute. A TG4 poll midway through the election campaign had Michael being comfortably returned; however, eyebrows were raised at his brother Danny’s 4 per cent showing. The poll possibly copperfastened Danny’s bid for re-election and he was on course to take the fourth seat on Sunday night. Michael Healy-Rae had the last laugh over the pollsters on RTÉ Radio, congratulating them “on their inconsistency in being incorrect”.

Elsewhere, former RTÉ journalist Valerie Cox looked unlikely to take a seat in Wicklow; Matt Shanahan, who came to prominence campaigning for investment in University Hospital Waterford, was in the running in the constituency.

Christy Burke, the 10-time Dublin Central candidate and one-time lord mayor of Dublin, received a major boost from Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald’s surplus and remained in the hunt last night.

Seanie O’Shea, the Independents4Change candidate backed by MEP Mick Wallace in his former constituency of Wexford, polled a disappointing 825 first-preference votes.