Pearse Doherty admits Donegal vote mismanaged by Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty has admitted his party mismanaged its vote in Donegal and should have sought a full recount when Gary Doherty was eliminated.

The party’s outgoing TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn was just pipped by Independent Thomas Pringle for the last seat at the count in Letterkenny last Sunday night.

Many were surprised when Sinn Féin conceded defeat and did not look for a full recount. However, in an interview with RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, the TD also said there would have been a bigger gap between Pringle and Mac Lochlainn had the party not followed the three- candidate strategy.

“Had we not run three candidates in the county, the gap between Thomas Pringle and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn would have been even greater. Although that strategy gave Pádraig the best chance, we have to ask ourselves questions about what we should do for the next election; can we divide up the county better to manage the vote better?” said Pearse Doherty, adding that internal party opinion polls had shown Mac Lochlainn’s vote was low, and that he himself would be getting a lot of votes in Inishowen and Letterkenny.

“We had known for a while... the opinion polls we had done ourselves told us that Pádraig Mac Lochlainn’s vote was low, but we didn’t realise that Fianna Fáil’s vote would be so high,” he said.

“At the end of the day, with the amount of votes we got, we should have taken two seats.”

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