As the European Parliament election results trickle in from each member state, Ireland’s three electoral constituities seem to be trailing behind. But what could be the cause?
Many experts argue that the issue stems from the polling process. The local and European elections are held simultaneously, and voters, last Friday, were asked to drop two different ballots, each for each election, into the same ballot box. This, effectively, requires the initial phase of the count – segregating local and European ballots.
The Department for Housing, Planning and Local Government affirms this is a valid way to proceed. A department representative explains that the current procedure of using a single ballot box is perceived the most efficient method to conduct the poll and counting process.
Later, the representative supplemented, “The counting for a poll cannot commence until every ballot paper for the poll is documented and all the ballots are at the designated count centre. As the European and local elections’ counts happen at different locations – and often far apart considering the size of a European Parliament constituency – if ballots for one election are mistakenly found in the wrong box (e.g., local election ballot in a European election box; likely due to human oversight), the transportation of the misplaced ballot to the appropriate count centre would cause count-start delays.”
Talking about the Irish constituencies, the Midlands-North-West count is traditionally among the last to finish. The initial count is projected to be ready by Monday evening.
There are multiple reasons for this, as per returning officer Marian Chambers Higgins. “We are potentially dealing with 1.3 million voters and five seats,” she explains, indicating a significant number of votes to be counted.
This election sees 27 contenders vying for the constituency’s 5 seats. A particularly long ballot paper, exactly 73cm, also contributes to the time it takes to sort them, states Ms Chambers Higgins.
Counting of European ballots only commenced on Sunday morning at Castlebar’s TF Royal Hotel. Votes were transported from numerous locations across the vast constituency to the counting centre where a team of 320 counters began processing them.
The vote counting protocol required that the votes first be organised into purpose-built compartments. Subsequently, a detailed counting operation got underway where first-preference votes for each candidate were packed into sets of 50, weighed for accuracy, and then restacked into a batch of 500 votes.
The initial count prioritised well-known candidates such as Independent Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen, and Maria Walsh of Fine Gael in Midlands-North-West. During the counting procedure, ambiguous votes were excluded and set aside for the returning officer’s deliberation, supported by the candidates and their respective agents. This further included votes where preference wasn’t explicitly clear. The counting speed varied, taking longer in certain local election counts.
Due to consecutive unfolding events at the TF Royal Hotel & Theatre in Castlebar, North Mayo constituency was the last Local Electoral Area (LEA) to commence its first count. Original expectations intended for counts in Castlebar, Swinford, and Ballina to take place in the TF’s upstairs Velvet Room while counts for Claremorris, Belmullet, and Westport were set for the downstairs Ruby Room.
Although Swinford was initially scheduled to begin at 10am on Sunday, Castlebar’s count continued overnight, culminating at just past 8am on Sunday. Counters in the Velvet Room were dismissed for a short break before commencing the Swinford count at a delayed time of 2pm.
Further complications arose when a recount was requested in Swinford at around 9pm that same evening. Concurrently, with Westport’s count underway in the Ruby Room, the decision was made to start the Ballina count in the Ruby Room at 10am on Monday. The recount in Swinford continues in the Velvet Room, while Ballina’s first count took place in the Ruby Room just prior to 3pm. For further political discourse and analysis, tune in to our Inside Politics podcast.