Inishowen the biggest loser in Election 2007 26.05.07

Inishowen is the biggest casualty in the Donegal North East election having lost its sitting TD, Cecilia Keaveney, and failing to return any new deputies. The shock to the peninsula was delivered around 3.15am following the distribution of Keaveney's 6,744 votes.
	And, as widely predicted, her transfers fell politically rather than geographically, favouring her colleagues James McDaid and Niall Blaney, rather than Sinn Fein's Padraig MacLochlainn. Fianna Fail cumanns around the peninsula are reeling following Keaveney's shock defeat, bringing to an end her ten-year career as a TD.
Donegal North East returned its first Dail deputy, Joe McHugh of Fine Gael, just after 1am with the body-blow to the Keaveney camp coming in the sixth count just after 1.40am. The local constituency threw up some of the biggest election-day surprises as a cliffhanger count continued into the early hours and confounded the pundits.

Fine Gael's Joe McHugh provided the first surprise of the day when he topped the poll with a first count of 8,711 votes. He took more than a whopping 3,000 votes - or 21% - of the Inishowen vote. The count was delayed by several hours at a packed Mount Errigal Hotel yesterday due to a recheck called due to concerns that the number of ballot sheets counted did not tally with the number initially declared when the boxes were opened.
And the first count, shortly after 9pm, threw up even more surprises when the official figures varied widely for some candidates than those predicted earlier in the day by the tallymen. From then on, it was a tense wait for the rest of the main contenders including James McDaid (6724 first preference votes), Padraig MacLochlainn (6,733), Cecilia Keaveney (6,362) and Niall Blaney (6,288). It quickly became clear that the winners and losers in the race for the last two seats would be decided on transfers. Joe McHugh was declared elected on the fifth count with 10,034 votes bringing him over the 9,637 quota by 394 votes. He was clearly thrilled by the win if more than a little shocked by the nature of it. "This is a nice feeling and it's great to deliver a seat especially for the people who have been involved in the Fine Gael organisation in Donegal for 30 or 40 years. "People have placed a lot of responsibility on my shoulders in electing me and I believe that I can deliver for them." While admitting his party had been on a downward spiral following the last election, he said his team had stuck by the new Fine Gael strategy with the result that they had returned a TD to the constituency. It was still all to play for at 2am, for the second and third seats, between McDaid (7,489), MacLochlainn (7,410) and Blaney (6,888). Keaveney who looked vulnerable all day eventually fell when McHugh's surplus of 397 votes were distributed, leaving her a total of 6,744 votes. The final decision came after the eighth count which put Blaney on 9,439 - 563 clear of MacLochlainn. McDaid's final tally was 10,008 votes. Elected - McHugh (FG), McDaid (FF) and Blaney (FF).
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