Kenny undeterred by attacks
SF’S KENNY WENT FROM BEING ELECTED ON THE 13TH COUNT IN 2016 TO POLL TOPPER IN 2020 WITH A 3,000 SURPLUS
‘A Nation Once Again’ rang out around the count centre in The Sligo Park Hotel around 9pm on Sunday night as Martin Kenny’s supporters gathered to celebrate his landslide victory in this year’s General Election.
It came as no surprise to anyone following the election that Kenny managed to retain his seat, but few would have predicted that he would sail home in the manner he did, being elected on the first count thanks to the fact that he surpassed the quota of 12,137 by nearly 3,000 votes.
Rewind to 2016 when Kenny was elected on the 13th count, thanks to receiving almost 5,000 votes from the elimination of fellow party member Chris MacManus.
Even then, it took over 14,000 votes to elect him, the large bulk of those coming from transfers after he received 6,356 first preference votes.
Times have changed, however, and this time Kenny did not need to rely on transfers.
The increase in popularity for Sinn Féin countrywide was reflected in Sligo/Leitrim, and even that is putting it mildly.
Kenny has endured a difficult time due to his willingness to speak out on issues that plenty of elected representatives would rather stay away from.
The backlash he received for speaking out in favour of housing asylum seekers in Ballinamore angered so many that Kenny’s car was set alight late one night.
It would take more than that to deter him, though. The scrawling of the letter ‘ T’ on his posters in Ballinamore to represent ‘ traitor’ went further than the normal scribbling you see on election posters. The anti-Kenny voters were keen to send a message.
While he may have lost votes from many of his own constituents in parts of Leitrim, perhaps his stance on such issues is part of the reason his own popularity has increased so much, let alone the nationwide support for Sinn Féin.
The questions remains, should Sinn Féin have run Chris MacManus as a second candidate as they had planned to do? There is a chance that MacManus would have been elected too, but given his popularity in Sligo town, it’s likely he would have taken from Kenny’s first preference votes and he may not have sailed back into the Dáil as he did.
From Kenny’s surplus, left side candidates benefited well, but so too did Marian Harkin, proving how transfer friendly the former MEP is.
Councillor Gino O’Boyle received 637 votes from Kenny’s surplus of almost 3,000, while Cllr. Declan was on the receiving end of 378 of those votes.
From the strength of Kenny’s vote, it seems that there is a swing towards the left, but perhaps that swing is not translating for other left sided candidates.
Cllr. Bree is well accustomed to topping the poll at local level, but when it comes to a General Election, that doesn’t seem to translate for whatever reason.
Bree picked up 2,236 first preference votes this time around, 1,000 fewer than four years ago.
The left candidates of Bree (Independents4Change), Nessa Cosgrove (Labour), Cllr. Gino O’Boyle (People Before Profit) and Blaithin
Gallagher (Green Party) won 6,951 first preference votes combined.
First time General Election candidates Cosgrove, O’Boyle and Gallagher will be pleased with how they fared considering it’s new territory for them, but there’s no doubt that Bree will be left disappointed with his showing.
Bree’s first preference tally this time will be a disappointment for the seasoned politician, but O’Boyle’s 1,746, Gallagher’s 1,791 and Cosgrove’s 1,178 will certainly give them an appetite for the future.
Cosgrove was eliminated on the sixth count, and her transfers told their own story. Bree received 185, Gallagher 351, O’Boyle 139 and once again Harkin was in the mix with 250 of Cosgrove’s transfers. So, the majority of Cosgrove’s transfers stayed left.
The left has a platform to build on here in the Sligo/Leitrim constituency, but it will take time. Should they continue to make all the right noises about housing, health and climate change, their support could very well grow in the region in the near future.