Very bad news for Fianna Fail in Donegal election result

Posted on Friday, November 26, 2010 at 06:58 PM

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The Donegal by election result will send a shiver through Fianna Fail as they saw their candidate's share of the vote drop by 60 per cent.

Sinn Fein won the seat, their first time in over 50 years to win a seat in Donegal with Fine Gael beating out Fianna Fail for second. Pearse Doherty will now defend the seat in just a few weeks time.

In the 2007 election Fianna Fail elected two of the three members of the parliament for the area with 50 per cent of the vote in what is their strongest constituency in Ireland.

This time they go to just 20 per cent of the vote. A low turnout revealed that a large percentage of their voters stayed home.

If that 20 per cent were matched in the upcoming general election, they would fall from the 77 seats they secured in 2007 to around 30 seats.

But they are likely to do far less well in other areas of the country rather than Donegal, where they can still count on a strong historical vote.

The election is shaping up as a disaster for them given this result as they will not match the 20 per cent support they reached in Donegal elsewhere in the country.

Sinn Fein will take a lot of solace in their vote but Donegal would be one of their key constituencies where they had an attractive candidate and a good on-the-ground operation.

However, it would be possible to see them reach close to fifteen seats in a general election if the voting transfers fell their way, putting them in a whole new era in Irish Republic politics, especially if party leader Gerry Adams is elected.

The big question mark in Donegal is over the poor Labor Party vote. Earlier trends had shown their candidate around 17 per cent but he ended up at ten per cent, a disappointing performance.

However, Donegal was never going to be proper territory for the Labor Party which is much more at home in an urban environment.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael will be happy enough with their performance, beating out Fianna Fail for second place.

It is a good result for party leader Enda Kenny who has had problems of his own of late.

But it is Fianna Fail candidates all over the country who will ponder this weekend what the future holds for them. Based on Donegal it does not look very pretty.

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5 comments

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teacher1101 | Dec 01, 2010, 03:30 PM EST

hooray for sinn fein result---it shows people not only in usa but elsewhere are fed up with the same old "business as usual"

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Towngate | Nov 29, 2010, 06:37 AM EST

Time now for intelligent informed factual reporting. Your Headline "Very Bad News for FF" could have read "Very Good News as Sinn Fein Gain Donegal Seat - Shamed FF scrape into third place behind Fianna Bias Party"

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kateomprint | Nov 27, 2010, 03:40 PM EST

I don't know about Enda Kenny i think maybe he might be honest and right now that is what we need. We have already had Bertie who gave the Unions every thing they wanted with his Showtime era. Cowen who has about as much people skills as a Polar Bear has beggared the Country.

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barneyjo | Nov 27, 2010, 08:10 AM EST

This is proof of the maxim "We get the Governement we deserve" Anyone silly enough to look to Sinn Fein for deliverence from present crisis will be severely disappointed. Only recently we had real indications from Mary-Lou McDonald as to the likely shape of party policy in dealing with the ECB/IMF which seemed to amount to telling both organisations to F**K OFF!!

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Dublinjas | Nov 27, 2010, 03:39 AM EST

The problem with Fine Gael is their perceived Dork of a leader Enda Kenny, Whatever comes or goes Fine Gael will not win any election while it is being led by this ineffectual leader, he has no people skills he does not attract voters ...And he must go and go in a hurry, Fine Gael could easily form the next Government if it gets rid of Kenny....He is just Not a Leader and he is a severe hindrance to this party.

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