Counting of votes in the Donegal South West by-election is under way with five candidates competing to fill the Dáil seat vacated by MEP Pat The Cope Gallagher.
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Counting of votes in the Donegal South West by-election is under way with five candidates competing to fill the Dáil seat vacated by MEP Pat The Cope Gallagher.
Main Points:
* Tallymen estimate that turnout was 56.1%
* Pearse Doherty tops tally with 39.7%
* Labour Party vote lower than expected
* Tallymen estimate that turnout was 56.1%
* Pearse Doherty tops tally with 39.7%
* Labour Party vote lower than expected
* Result expected this afternoon
Irish government awaits trouncing in vote for seat
1 hour 1 min ago
Padraic HalpinIreland's government is likely to see its majority cut to two when the results of an election for a vacant parliamentary seat are released on Friday.Skip related content
But despite the expected rebuke from voters unhappy about cutbacks to qualify for an IMF/EU bailout, the government has said it is confident about being able to pass a budget due on December 7.
Failure to pass the 2011 budget would deepen the country's crisis and destabilise the euro zone. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Dublin on Thursday he was confident the budget would go through.
"I am quite satisfied from my discussions both with the parties in government and the various public representatives in Dail Eireann (parliament) that there is a majority for this budget and that it will pass," he said.
The Fianna Fail-led government, which agreed this week to accept an IMF/EU bailout, expected to be about 85 billion euros ($113.6 billion), is predicted by opinion polls to lose the Donegal seat to the nationalist anti-European Sinn Fein.
That result, due on Friday afternoon, would leave it a majority of just two -- both independents who have said they might vote against the budget.
Fianna Fail's junior coalition partners, the Green Party, said this week they would pull out after a vote on the budget, forcing an election early next year.
The main opposition centre-right Fine Gael party has not said how it will vote on the budget.
SENIOR BONDHOLDERS
The government unveiled a four-year plan of 15 billion euros in tax rises and spending cuts on Wednesday, but this has done nothing to reassure investors who are still waiting to find out details of the bailout, and jittery about Irish bank debt exposure.
Fine Gael, which is likely to lead the next government, said it would not be bound by the terms of the four-year plan, although it has said it would stick with the main target of 15 billion euros in cuts.
26/11/2010 - 07:30:33
Counting will get underway at 9am today in the by-election in Donegal South West.
Five candidates are vying for the seat, which was vacated by Fianna Fáil's Pat the Cope Gallagher in the European elections in June 2009.
The delayed by-election is the first chance voters have had to show their dissatisfaction with the Government since the economic crisis began.
It was Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty who launched the successful legal challenge to force the Government to hold this delayed by-election. He is now favourite to win the seat here in Donegal South West.
There are four other candidates in the race, Fianna Fáil's Brian O'Domhnaill, Barry O'Neill of Fine Gael, Independent Thomas Pringle and Labour's Frank Mc Brearty.
Traditionally it is a Fianna Fáil's stronghold - the party had two TDs elected there in 2007.
If, as expected, Sinn Feéin's Pearse Doherty wins the seat, the Government's slim majority will be reduced to just two, assuming Independents Jackie Healy Rae and Michael Lowry continue to support the coalition.
Counting will get underway in the Finn Valley Athletic Centre in Stranorlar at 9am. Tallies are expected to give an indication of the result by lunchtime, with an result expected later in the afternoon.
Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/counting-to-start-soon-in-donegal-sw-by-election-483304.html#ixzz16NQUQJDs
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