12.40pm
Tallies for the Letterkenny boxes have been complete at the Aura Leisure Centre are indicating a strong performance by outgoing TD Pearse Doherty
They show Doherty on 23.4% (2,999) of the vote with his party colleague Padraig MacLochlainn sitting on 13.6% (1,740).
Charlie McConalogue appears to have polled quite well in the Letterkenny area and sits on 13.5% (1,724).
His party colleague Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher has picked up 819 votes in Letterkenny and Thomas Pringle 440 votes.
The 100% Redress Party candidate Charles Ward has polled 12.4% of the vote (1,589).
Letterkenny businessman Gerry McKeever, according to the tallies, has taken 247 votes in his home town; Mary T Sweeney 775 and Nikki Bradley 1,022.
Senator Bradley’s party colleague John McNulty has 245 votes.
So with Inishowen and Letterkenny boxes now opened, Sinn Féin look to be polling very strongly with Pearse Doherty on track to top the poll comfortably.
12.05 pm
With the Inishowen boxes now sorted, the tallying of the Letterkenny boxes has commenced.
The Inishowen boxes were the first boxes to be opened this morning and tallies are now available for the 62 boxes from the peninsula.
Tally figures suggest that Sinn Féin polled strongly in the area. Padraig MacLochlainn, SF, according to the tallies, has taken 32.6% of the vote picking up 6,211 votes. That compares to Charlie McConalogue, FF, (3,889), Pearse Doherty, SF, (3,111) and Charles Ward, 100% Redress, (2,464).
Tallies for the two Fine Gael candidates show that Nikki Bradley picked up 744 votes in Inishowen and John McNulty received 198.
Outgoing Independent TD Thomas Pringle, has 2.4% of the vote with 466 votes. Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher, FF, has 184 votes.
Tallies suggest Independent candidate Gerry McKeever received the least amount of votes in the area with 10 votes.
11.35 am
Counting staff discovered a wedding ring among the voting papers when they opened a ballot box at the Aura Leisure Centre this morning.
A note neatly taped to the top of the box indicated that a voter’s wedding ring had dropped into their ballot box when they cast their vote on Friday.
10.15am
With the sorting of votes well underway at the Aura Leisure Centre this morning, early indications are that Sinn Féin are polling strongly.
The first boxes being opened this morning are from Inishowen and by 10.20am, tallies were available from around 30 boxes from the peninsula.
Tally figures suggest that 100% Redress Party candidate Charles Ward hasn’t done as well as he would have anticipated in Inishowen. Significantly, the tally figures indicated that in the boxes opened, Pearse Doherty (SF) has taken almost 300 more first preference votes than Ward.
Padraig MacLochlainn, according to the tallies of the first boxes opened, has taken 37.1% of the vote, picking up 2,653 votes. That compares to Charlie McConalogue (1,326), Pearse Doherty (1,100), and Charles Ward (834).
Early figures for the two Fine Gael candidates show Nikki Bradley picking up 277 votes in the first boxes opened; and John McNulty receiving 62 votes.
Outgoing TD Thomas Pringle has 2.0% of the vote in the first boxes opened with 140 votes. Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher has 59 votes.
10am
There is a big media presence here at the Aura Leisure Centre, a lot of the candidates are also present.
9.40am
Keep up to date with the tallies as they happen via the following link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13XJsbOQhPjel0sRWJXnl_0MUW2zExIvYRcEPv3muz2Q/edit?usp=drivesdk
9.15am
Tallying has commenced at the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny.
9 am
Good morning, we’re settled in and ready for a long and busy day ahead. We have team members working in the Aura Leisure Centre keeping you updated on everything as it happens. Our reporters Dionne Meehan, Louise Doyle, Róise Collins, Diarmaid Doherty and Evelyn Cullen are out and about with our photographers Brian McDaid and Declan Doherty.
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