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Westmeath and Roscommon voters back Michael D

by Karen Downey  Updated: Wednesday, 2nd November, 2011 5:30pm

Sean Gallagher tops Roscommon/South Leitrim first preferences

Longford/Westmeath and Roscommon/South Leitrim voters backed president elect Michael D. Higgins when they went to the polls last Thursday, with the Labour party candidate taking the highest vote in both constituencies after transfers.

Higgins took the highest percentage of the first preference votes (35.5%) in Longford/Westmeath compared to 33.7% for Gallagher.

And while the new president came out tops in both constituencies after the fourth count, in Roscommon/South Leitrim Independent candidate Seán Gallagher out-polled him in first preference votes, receiving more than 1,500 votes than Michael D. Higgins. Gallagher took 36.05% of the first preferences, compared to 31.8% for Higgins.

It wasn't a great day for the ladies in either constituency, with both Mary Davis and Dana Rosemary Scallon eliminated on the first count in both constituencies.

In Longford/Westmeath there was a turnout of just 53.01% with 45,543 of the 85,911 of the registered voters in the constituency casting their vote. Of these, some 484 people spoiled their votes, resulting in a valid poll for Longford/Westmeath of 45,059.

When the results of the first count were in, Michael D. Higgins and Seán Gallagher were almost neck and neck with Michael D. receiving 15,987 first preference votes and Gallagher receiving 15,166 first preference votes. They were followed by Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness with 5,885 first preference votes; Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell with 3,372; David Norris with 2,154; Dana Rosemary Scallon with 1,550 and Mary Davis with 945 first preference votes.

There was a similar pattern in Roscommon/South Leitrim, the only difference being that Seán Gallagher picked up more first preference votes than Michael D. Higgins, something which may be attributed to the Roscommon Hospital Action Group's campaign to encourage voters not to vote for either of the Government party candidates in a bid to demonstrate the frustration of the electorate at the Government's decision to close the emergency department at the county hospital.

There was a slightly higher turnout in Roscommon/South Leitrim with a turnout 60.39% or 36,486 voters of the 60,416 people registered to vote casting their votes in the presidential election. Of these, 394 people spoiled their votes, giving Roscommon/South Leitrim a valid poll of 36,092.

On the first count in Roscommon/South Leitrim Seán Gallagher received 13,011 votes; Michael D. Higgins received 11,480; Martin McGuinness received 5,286; Gay Mitchell received 2,334; David Norris received 1,322; Dana Rosemary Scallon received 1,589 and Mary Davis received 1,070 first preference votes.