Clarke confident of retaining Sinn Féin seat

Sinn Féin’s Sorca Clarke is confident of holding the party’s seat after final Longford-Westmeath tallies earlier today suggested that she has a sufficiently comfortable cushion to make the cut.

The Kinnegad-based TD is involved in a three-way battle for the final two seats with the Longford duo of Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) and Joe Flaherty (Fianna Fáil).

However, Clarke and Carrigy are both well positioned to prevail, with both in the region of 3% clear of Flaherty after the final tallies.

Combined with the first preference votes for her running mate Barry Campion, tallies suggest that Sinn Féin will poll around 3,500 fewer votes than its 2020 tally, but Clarke is happy with the party’s performance.

“I think the tallies have told a very different story of the election in Longford-Westmeath this time around compared to where it was, but that’s not unexpected. When you’ve got 20 candidates on a ballot paper, you can expect changes,” she told the Westmeath Examiner as the first count continued this evening.

“Where Sinn Féin is at the moment is that this is the first time we have ever run two candidates in this constituency. Barry has polled very well. He’s slightly ahead of where we wanted him to be, and that’s good. I’m confident of retaining the seat for Sinn Féin here.”

The Sinn Féin education spokesperson said that she’s preparing for a “a couple of long nights” to finalise the count but is looking forward to the end of a positive campaign.

“We were very lucky with the campaign, given the time of year. We had two days that were wet, one evening where it was minus four, but after it was dry and generally good. The reception on the doors was very good,” she said.

“There are a lot of problems in this constituency, like everywhere else, that are going to need to be tackled by the incoming government, regardless of who that may be. From health, and particularly mental health, to housing, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, and each and every person who lives in this constituency deserves to have that work done.”

Clarke said that she was concerned about the low turnout in some areas of the constituency, but was happy with Sinn Féin’s performance in areas like Delvin and Castlepollard, which have returned to Longford-Westmeath after a long exile in the Meath West constituency.

“The turnout in some areas was poor. I think Longford town overall had a turnout of just over 45.1%. I’ve been looking down through the tallies as well, and some of the individual boxes around the constituency were below 30%, which is very concerning,” she added.

“Some of the turnout in north Westmeath was very good, like Coole, where it was 60%. I think the people who live in those former Meath West areas would generally come to the TDs in Longford-Westmeath, because it is where they live.

“We may live in a political bubble that has all to do with imaginary lines drawn on a map, but people who live in the county will go to the people who represent the county.

“I haven’t had much of a chance to look at the bigger picture. I think Sinn Féin is in line to take additional seats in a number of constituencies, which is very good.

“I’ve been looking at how Aoife Masterson has been polling in Offaly, which is a new area with only three seats, and she’s been doing phenomenally well down there, and there’s another couple of areas.

“Time will tell. It may be the evening time today, but it’s still very early days.”

Clarke reckons that an additional haul of seats will put Sinn Féin in a stronger position ahead of negotiations for government formation, and that the party is open to discussing any issue

“Mary Lou [McDonald] has been very specific on this. We are not going to rule out speaking to anybody on any issue,” she explained. “To do so would, in my opinion, be very disrespectful to people who voted for other parties that aren’t us. But the preference would be for a left-aligned coalition.

“We can’t answer these questions, really, until every vote has been counted. I don’t have a crystal ball to hand. But what we have seen over a consecutive number of elections is the vote for established parties is starting to diminish. When we say the final lie of the land, that’s when we’ll be able to say.”