General Election: Inishowen tallies say Sinn Féin polling strong, Ward in a fight

While the 100% Redress party swept the boards at the local elections, General Election candidate Charles Ward seems set to be in a dog fight to take a Dail seat in the Donegal constituency.

In the Inishowen peninsula, at the heart of the defective concrete blocks crisis - which has blighted thousands of homes across Donegal - tally figures indicate that Ward is placing fourth in the running.

The early tally figures show Ward with 2,464 first preference votes - or a 12.9 per cent share of the votes.

Tally figures show that 19,074 votes were cast in Inishowen’s 62 polling stations.

Sinn Féin looks well on his way to topping the charts in his native Inishowen with the indications that he has gained 6,211 first preferences - 32.6 per cent of the vote.

His party colleague and Sinn Féin deputy leader Pearse Doherty polled very strong in Inishowen with 3,111 votes according to the tally. Those figures give Sinn Féin around 50 per cent of the first preferences in Inishowen.

Sitting Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue gained 3,889 votes across Inishowen - his home territory. The Fianna Fáil candidate seems to have taken around 20.4 per cent of the first preferences, according to the tallies.

The presence of Ward in the field affected both McConalogue and Mac Lochlainn.

There had been worry among Fianna Fáil circles around McConalogue’s numbers when the early figures were gone through, but those fears have eased somewhat for the Gleneely man  with boxes opened across the constituency.

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Tallies have Fine Gael’s Nikki Bradley with 744 first preferences with her running mate John McNulty on 198 while Kim McMenamin from Buncrana has 382 first preferences and Independent TD Thomas Pringle gained 466 first preferences.