Counting has begun for the European and local council elections in Ireland. Sinn Féin, the main opposition party, is expected to have more councillors elected to local authorities, but not as many as it desired. A senior Sinn Féin politician has informed the media that the party is not expected to receive the result it was hoping for in the local Irish government elections. Despite this disappointing performance in the election, Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin, said she has no plans to step down from her position. She added that the party had made some gains, albeit modest ones.
Pearse Doherty, TD (member of parliament) for Donegal, emphasized that the party would have to “dust themselves down” and look at the “lessons that can be learned”. He stated that while the party will make some gains in some counties, it is not the result the party was hoping for. With a general election ahead, Mr Doherty believes that people still want change. Voting in Ireland took place for three polls on Friday. Polls will provide political parties with insight into voter sentiment.
Fine Gael, a political party, is set to be the largest political party in local government, taking over from Fianna Fáil. The Irish government has been in place since June 2020, when Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party voted to enter a coalition together. The next election must be held by March 2025. Former taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern informed the media that Sinn Féin’s popularity bounce during the last general election “wasn’t real”. Speaking to RTÉ, he said “I think now they have a problem because if you start going down to the extent that they are it’s a real problem for them.”
As well as picking candidates to send to the European Parliament, the Irish public voted to elect new councillors and, for the first time, some were asked to decide on a directly-elected mayor to represent them. The first of the local election results were declared on Saturday. Fourteen MEPs will be chosen across three constituencies to represent Ireland in the European Parliament. Results will be announced after 22:00 BST on Sunday evening. Under European law, results must not be announced until all countries have finished voting
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