Northern Ireland

Sinn Féin defends asking for €1 million European election recount

Sinn Féin presidential candidate Liadh Ní Riada was eliminated on Wednesday night but yesterday a recount was ordered in the South constituency. Picture by Aoife Moore/PA Wire
Sinn Féin presidential candidate Liadh Ní Riada was eliminated on Wednesday night but yesterday a recount was ordered in the South constituency. Picture by Aoife Moore/PA Wire Sinn Féin presidential candidate Liadh Ní Riada was eliminated on Wednesday night but yesterday a recount was ordered in the South constituency. Picture by Aoife Moore/PA Wire

SINN Féin has defended its decision to trigger a full recount of votes in the Republic's South constituency, saying party workers identified a "number of discrepancies" in the European election count that saw presidential candidate Liadh Ní Riada lose her seat.

Returning officer Martin Harvey has warned that recounting the 720,000 votes cast last Friday could take up six weeks and cost as much as €1 million.

Fine Gael's Seán Kelly and Fianna Fáil's Billy Kelleher had already been elected, with independent Mick Wallace on course to be returned as an MEP.

The recount, which will begin next Tuesday, was called after Ms Ní Riada, Fine Gael's Deirdre Clune and the Green Party's Grace O'Sullivan battled for the two final seats.

Read More: Mary Lou McDonald defends position as Sinn Féin leader after poor election results

The Sinn Féin candidate had been eliminated on Wednesday night after losing out to Ms O'Sullivan by 327 votes.

Yesterday morning's recheck resulted in Ms Ní Riada picking up just one vote from almost 200,000 papers.

Sinn Féin incumbent Matt Carthy was re-elected in Midlands-North West. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Sinn Féin incumbent Matt Carthy was re-elected in Midlands-North West. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire Sinn Féin incumbent Matt Carthy was re-elected in Midlands-North West. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire

But Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien, the party's director of elections, said a full recount was needed to ensure confidence in the outcome.

Asked about the cost, he replied: “I don’t put any price on democracy."

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin's sole re-elected MEP Matt Carthy has said the party's disappointing showing in the European and local elections means there are big questions for the party to answer.

Mr Carthy was elected in Midlands-North-West alongside Fine Gael's Mairead McGuinness and Maria Walsh, and Independents 4 Change's Luke 'Ming' Flanagan.

In Dublin, the Green Party's Ciarán Cuffe was the first elected, alongside former Fine Gael justice minister Frances Fitzgerald, Independents 4 Change's Clare Daly and Fianna Fáil's Barry Andrews.

Mr Andrews, like the fifth candidate elected in the South constituency, will not become an official MEP until the UK leaves the EU.