SF and FF make hay as Labour and FG falter

Sinn Fein will have three candidates in Westmeath County Council for the first time since the War of Independence after a stellar peformance at the local election polls.

On a day when Fine Gael lost three out of their eight seats and Labour four out of six, Sinn Fein succeeded in getting their three candidates (Sorcha Clarke, Una D'Arcy and Paul Hogan) elected to the next council. The biggest surprise of the day without a doubt was Clarke's election in the Mullingar Kilbeggan. Heavily pregnant, the young mum increased her 2009 vote by around 300% despite, understanably, running a low key campaign.

Fianna Fail also performed well with Cllr Aidan Davitt topping the poll in Mullingar Coole and Cllr Paul Daly doing the same in Mullingar Kilbeggan. All three of the parties candidates in Mullingar Kilbeggan were elected and it was the same story in Mullingar Coole.

At the time of writing in the early hours of Sunday morning, it appeard that the party were going to retain at least eight seats and possibly nine with Vinny McCormack in a fight for the last seat in Athlone.

Labour's meltdown at the polls in Westmeath mirrored their performance nationwide. While Cllrs Mick Dollard, whose first preference vote was almost halved, and Johnny Penrose retained their seats, cllrs Detty Cornally, Ger Corcoran, Peter Keaney and Denis Leonard missed out.

In Mullingar Kilbeggan, anti windfarm campaigner Andrew Duncan became Fine Gael's only new face in the council chambers, while his party colleague Cllr Colm Arthur lost his seat.

Independent Brian Fagan ran in both Mullingar Kilbeggan and Mullingar Coole and finished in seventh place in the six seater and eighth in the seven seater.

 

Mullingar Kilbeggan Elected Candidates

Paul Daly FF

Avril Whitney FF

Ken Glynn FF

Johnny Penrose Lab

Sorcha Clarke SF

Andrew Duncan FG

 

Mullingar Coole Elected Candidates

Aidan Davitt FF

Una D'Arcy SF

John Shaw FF

Paddy Hill FF

Peter Burke FG

Frank McDermott FG

Mick Dollard Lab