After losing to Fianna Fáil’s Cynthia Ní Mhurchú in the Ireland South election for the final spot in the five-seat constituency, Independent4Change’s Mick Wallace vowed to persist with his advocacy for peace and a more equitable Europe. He extended his thanks to his supporters who voted for him, securing him 84,157 votes, and criticised mainstream media for not showing him enough support while promoting his adversaries.
Despite his vote count slipping from 81,741 in 2019 to 52,803 this time around, Wallace remained in competition until the second last count. He trailed Ní Mhurchú until she inched ahead due to a substantial numbers of votes transferred her way from Sinn Féin’s Paul Gavan during the 14th count. Wallace briefly regained the lead with transfers from the Social Democrats’ Susan Doyle. A transfer of 4,700 votes from Ireland First’s Derek Blighe on count no 17 helped Wallace too.
However, the tides turned when Fine Gael’s John Mullins transferred 6,235 votes to the Fianna Fáil candidate to Wallace’s 1,804. Ní Mhurchú expanded her lead with additional 3,377 votes transferred from Billy Kelleher, compared with a minor 223 for Wallace. The deciding factor was the 16,602 votes transferred to Ní Mhurchú when Green Party’s MEP, Grace O’Sullivan, was eliminated, thus securing the seat for the Carlow lady.
In the meantime, Sinn Féin’s Kathleen Funchion from Kilkenny and Independent Michael McNamara from Clare both gained vote counts of 90,070 and 92,871 respectively.
Ms Ní Mhurchú along with others were elected without reaching the required quota of 114, 761. Mr McNamara was indebted to Mr Blighe, who supplied him with over 8,000 transferred votes, whereas Ms Funchion received an excess of 15,000 from her political partner, Paul Gavan.
[ Fianna Fáil secures seat in the South of Ireland as Mick Wallace misses out ]
Now, these newly elected MEPs will partner with existing MEPs Seán Kelly from Fine Gael, who secured his parliamentary seat on the first count by scoring above the quota with 122,776 votes, and Mr Kelleher from Fianna Fáil, who crossed the threshold on the 18th count.
Ms O’Sullivan voiced her discomfiture, noticing people’s lack of acknowledgement of her readiness to communicate openly with those whom she frequently disagreed, aiming to discover resolutions.
“I must say, given my political career and my own campaign history, I have made a point of engaging with the public… sitting and dialoguing with them, taking note of their complaints or worries, then attempting to figure out effective solutions.
“Thus, I reckon that these general accusations of detachment or strong ideologies aimed at the Greens, may be undeserved and unfair, at least in my case, as I have always worked closely people,” she explained.