THOUSANDS of people in Donegal will cast their ballot in the general election tomorrow.
With five seats up for grabs in the tightly contested constituency and 20 keen candidates, much dialogue has been given as to how the votes will go, but there is uncertainty.
Polling suggests that Sinn Féin’s TD Pearse Doherty is again expected to top the ballot in the Donegal constituency.
Last time out in 2020, Sinn Féin held more than 45 per cent of the first preference vote, with both candidates elected on the first count.
Mr Doherty topped the poll with a staggering 21,044 votes and running mate Padraig MacLochlainn also comfortably exceeded the quota on the first count with 13,891 votes.
Between them, Doherty and MacLochlainn had a shared quota of 2.7, enough to have potentially elected a third candidate.
This time around Sinn Féin is looking to take advantage of their surplus by running a third candidate, Cllr Noel Jordan.
However, this same strategy is what cost MacLochalinn his seat back in 2016.
In 2020 Fine Gael had less than 14 per cent, but after nine counts, Deputy McHugh managed to get re-elected.
Out of the five current TDs Joe McHugh is the only one not to contest his seat.
This has caused strong speculation that Fine Gael might lose their seat.
The results of a TG4/Ipsos B&A Donegal constituency poll revealed on Nuacht TG4 last week predicted that Fine Gael are unlikely to retain the seat won by Mr McHugh in 2020.
Fine Gael also failed to win a seat in four of the seven local electoral areas in June.
For full article see today’s edition of the Donegal News.
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